Sunnydale- The Slayer and the Superman
by GreatRaoOfKrypton
Summary: It's hard to drop everything you know and love and move somewhere else, especially at the beginning of high school. Buffy and Clark know this well. This is the story of the two chosen saviors of the planet and how their destinies align.
1. Chapter 1

**Another story! No? Nothing? Fine, lemme just get to the point. Smallville (Teenage Superman's my jam). Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I got a thing for Sarah Michelle Gellar. And Alyson Hannigan. And Charisma Carpenter. What can I say, I don't have a type). Crossover. Perfect concoction. The story is gonna flip-flop between perspectives and stuff, and I don't really like using character P.O.V. titles, so bear with me while I test the waters. Thanks for reading.**

Ah, high school. A place of learning, community, angst, rebellion, and, most of the time, self-degredation. Sunnydale was no different. Every now and then you'll see and over-confident and overall douchey guy snag a bimbo at the Bronze and take said bimbo to the roof to, ya'know, drink [soda] and [politely and chastely kiss] until one or the other passes out on the floor. The guy smashing a classroom window, disturbing the otherwise peaceful school halls, planned to do just that.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" The aforementioned bimbo asks.

"This is a great idea, now come on." The couple jumps through the window and strolls down the halls.

"Do you go to school here?"

"Nah, I used to. On top of the gym, it's so cool, so can see the whole town from there."

"I-I-I don't wanna go up there." All of a sudden, seeming extremely hesitant.

"Oh, you can't wait, huh?" He insinuates, creeping closer.

"We'll get in trouble anyway."

"Yeah, you can count on it." Their lips were inching closer, tantalizingly closer, when the girl gasped and spun around at breakneck speed.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"I heard a noise

"It's nothing!"

"Well, maybe it's something"

"Maybe it's someTHING." He wiggled his fingers in a teasing way, but she didn't seem to like it.

"It's not funny." She reprimanded while lightly hitting his shoulder. He walks to a corner and looks around it.

"Helloooo?" He turns around slightly annoyed. "There's nobody here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure."

"Ok." She suddenly whips around, revealing the face of a creature out of children's nightmares, and leaps at the guy, taking a big bite into his neck.

"Ahhhh..." He yelps, but slowly stops as he takes his final breaths.

How does one comprehend leaving everything he/she knows and loves? I don't know, and neither does the 14 to 15-year-old Kansas boy sitting in the adjacent seat to his father in their big, red truck. He feels pain pulsate in his chest as he sees the connected moving van connected to the truck. Then nothing but pure rage at the thought of why they were forced to move in the first place, not because of some storm or debt, but Lionel freakin Luthor. The tool put so many farmers in Smallville out of a job, from the Ross family to them, the Kent family. His dad couldn't find another job in Smallville so they were forced out of the small town. After weeks of looking, not only for a well-paying job, but a town that would be easier to hide his, um, abilities, his mother found a great little hamlet that went by the name Coast City. After vehemently rejecting the prospect of living there, Martha and Jonathan settled on an even smaller town called Sunnydale. It was small, but it was honestly bigger and probably more fit for a teenager than 'southern drawl' Smallville.

Jonathan glanced at his son, seeing his in a state of contemplation and decided to break it and cut the kid a little slack. "Clark, you should probably get some rest. We'll be in Sunnydale soon and you have to be ready for the first day of school."

Clark smiled tiredly. He appreciated the help, but he really wasn't feeling the whole 'don't worry, be happy' shtick. "Sure Pa, can't wait!" He turned away again and felt his eyes sink lower and lower before he finally fell asleep. He tossed and turned, images flashing through his mind, searing into his brain; images of a bright light, no death, no pain, just warm light, and finally 'S'. And he smiled.

Meanwhile, a blonde teenage girl was rolling around in her bed, like Clark Kent, seeing images flashing through her brain, though unlike the visions of hope, these were more ominous: visions of demons, graveyards, and vampires were constant. A vampire growled, seemingly at her, violently jolting her from her sleep. She was panting heavily, her eyes wide ' _This can't be happening again! We just moved here, I thought I was done with this!_ ' A familiar voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Buffy?' Her mom.

"I'm up Mom!"

"Don't wanna be late for your first day!"

"No, wouldn't want that." She muttered and got up to get ready.

Jonathan pulled up to a curb and looked at his son. Clark was squirming with his backpack in his lap, he took a deep breath and muttered to himself, "Suck it up, Clark, you're invulnerable and super strong. Why are you such a coward?"

Jonathan sighed and gripped his son's shoulder. "It's ok to feel nervous Clark, it's only natural, in fact."

"But I'm not natural, I'm a freak who could lift a car as a toddler. I could've ran here from Smallvile and get every box here before you even reached California. I'm not normal, believe me, I would know."

Jonathan looked down at that. He knew his son thought of himself as a freak and he's worked so hard to make him think otherwise, but he knows it's impossible if he doesn't know where he comes from. "Just try to have a good day at school son."

"Alright dad. See ya." Clark stepped out of the car, revealing his large and powerful frame. He turned and waved to his dad as he was driving away. After one more deep breath, he walked towards to stairs when somebody crashed into him. He fell down with the hit, protecting his secret, and whoever ran into him. If he wasn't paying any attention, the kid might've broken bones. People walking by were laughing at them, either people knew this guy as a klutz or he already made a joke of himself within the first few steps on school grounds.

The lanky boy spoke first. "Hey, it's all good, everything's cool. Sorry man, didn't see you there. Name's Xander. I've never seen you around, you new?"

Clark blinked, he didn't think anyone could talk as fast as Chloe Sullivan. "Um, hi. I'm Clark, Clark Kent. Yeah, I, uh, just moved here two days ago. You like talking don't you?"

"Hey what can I say? It's part of my charm." He stopped when he saw someone. "Willow! You are so very much the person I wanted to see. Oh yeah, Willow, this is CK, I can call you CK, right? You don't look like a guy I don't wanna upset, so maybe I should've asked you before I used it."

Clark looked confused, but shook his head. "I don't really mind, call me whatever." He turned to look at the girl for the fist time and swore that he stopped breathing for a second. She had long, scarlett hair and green eyes with, from what he could see, hints of hazel. He had no clue why he was memorizing her features, but for now, all he saw was her. He blinked and stuck his hand out when he realized he was looking awkward. "H-hi, my real name's Clark Kent. I, uh, have to- do something. I can't remember, it was nice meeting you Willow." And he walked away shaking his head at how stupoid he sounded.

"What was that all about?" Willow asked, extremely confused.

"No clue, but I think it has something to do with me calling him CK. Weird kid. Don't tell him I said that, he could probably crush me. Anyway, yeah, needed to talk to you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, I kinda had a problem with the math."

"Which part?"

"The math. Can you help me out tonight? Pleeease be my study buddy?"

"Well what's in it for me?" She teased

"A shiny nickel."

"Oh Ok, do you have 'Theories in Trig.'? You should check it out."

"Check it out?"

"From the library. Where the books live."

"Right, I'm there. See? I wanna change!" And so they walked into the school.

 **I guess I'll stop there for now, I covered how everybody's there and all that stuff, so next update will be longer. Leave a review if you want, PM me if you guys want a certain pairing, if not, I'm gonna stick to the one I basically alerted to in the chapter. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello once again, it's the Great Rao of Krypton, at your service. To those wondering, this is gonna take place after season 1 of Smallville and obviously the very beginning of BTVS. I'll give it another update or two until I decide the pairing. Whichever lovely lady gets to at least 7 requests first is the winner. The girl of your choice could be anyone from Smallville or Buffy (Anyone from Buffy herself to Drusilla). Another option-I'm not sure if people want it, but if they really do, I could try-is Fem! character (Probably don't but if you want anyone from fem!Lex to fem! Angel I guess) Just tell me the character you want poor Clark to be with.**

"Hey, hey!" A tall and skinny boy in orange appeared out of nowhere greeting the approaching Xander and Willow. He didn't look creepy, per say, but he definitely looked like he wasn't very picky with any girl agreeing to date him. Xander held recognition in his eyes and quickly went to greet his friend.

"Hey Jesse! What's what?"

"New girl." And as if that was all he needed, Xander went full investigative mode.

"That's right, I saw her. Pretty much a hottie. There's a new guy too, seems pretty coll, but kinda awkward with girls. I think I found myself a new protoge, with any luck, he'll be as smooth as we are."

Willow rolled her eyes. "If he does become as 'smooth' as you two are, I fear for this town even more."

"I think it'll be for the best Will'. You saw how he was with you."

"I don't know, it was kinda cute."

"Yeah, well, enough talk about the new guy." He turned to Jesse. "The new girl, hmm? So tell"

"Tell what"

"What's the sitch'? What do ya know about her?"

"New girl." He said as if it were obvious.

"Well, you certainly have nothing."

"Buffy Summers, Sophmore, from Hemery High in Los Angeles. Interesting...um...record. Quite a career." The principal sits down and promptly tears Buffy's record, to her suprise. "Welcome to Sunnydale! A clean slate Buffy, that's what you get here. What's past is past. We're not interested in what it says on a piece of paper, even if it says-" His eyes widen as he reads the suprisingly destructive vandilism that stemmed from such a small girl. "-well-"

Buffy steps in to explain herself, and maybe talk her way out of expultion on the first day. "Mr. Flutie-"

He quickly cut in again. "All the kids here are free to call me Bob"

"Bob-"

"But they don't" He told her in a firm and warning tone. After seeing the papers he began to put them together again.

"I know my transcripts are a little...colorful."

"Hey, we're not caring about that." He said half-heartedly as he taped the four paper pieces together. "Do you think colorful is the word? Not, uh...dismal."

Buffy jumped to defense. "It wasn't that bad."

"You burned down the gym." She sighed

I did, I really did. But you're not seeing the big picture here! I mean that gym was FULL of vamp...asbesthos." She finished lamely.

"Buffy, don't worry. Any other school, they might say 'watch your step' or 'we'll be watching you' but that's just not the way here. We want to service your needs. And help you respect our needs. And if your needs and our needs don't match-" He put Buffy's taped up file in an empty folder and slammed it shut, startling Buffy. She awkwardly smiled, not sure what he was gonna do next. He looked up at her, an idea sparking in his eyes. "We gained another new fickle student this year. Made quite a presence in his town's newspapers. He's actually from quite far away, Clark Kent from Kansas. He was credited with many rescues, maybe you should take the time to meet him. In fact, he should be here right about now." Right on time, Buffy heard a knock on the door and Principal Flutie went to open it. She laughed internally about what he would be like: either a pompous asshole that wears too much leather or a tall and lanky boy in flannel and overalls. When he walked in, she was suprised, he wasn't wearing plaid, but his dresscode seemingly strict to primary colors only wasn't much better. She got tall right, but he wasn't thin, he was built like a tank. She practically had to break her neck to look up at him.

He shot her a crooked smile and reached out a hand for her to shake. "Hi, I'm Clark Kent. I'm new here."

She smiled back and shook his hand. "I'm Buffy Summers, also new here."

"Well it's good to know I'm not the only one worried about trying to catch up and make friends."

Principal Flutie interrupted the blooming friendship. ' _Thanks Bob._ ' Buffy thought, annoyed. Clark turned and shook Flutie's hand too. "Hi, uh...Principal Flutie." He greeted after noticing the name plaque.

"Take a seat Clark, get comfortable. Ms. Summers, I thank you for your time, but I need to talk to our buddy Clark here for a moment." Buffy nodded and stood up, letting out a breath she held since she saw him with her file.

"How are you today Clark? I understand it must have been hard moving here from Smallville-going from country to city."

"Yeah, uh, I'm getting by, I guess. Sunnydale's pretty cool though. There's a lot more people here, so that's cool."

"Were you happy in Smallville? I heard you were quite the hometown hero in Smallville. Why were you so quick to help those people?"

"I don't really know, I just don't like letting innocent people get hurt. I couldn't live with myself if someone got hurt and I could've done something to help."

"That's very noble and brave of you Clark. I hope I'm not overstepping any boundaries, but I saw that you were adopted." Clark winced at the bitter thoughts he learned to associate with the very mention of his biological parents. "If you don't mind me asking, do you know if your real parents are-"

Clark finally snapped at the resurface of his biological parents. "No, I don't. My parents my REAL parents found me alone in a cornfield, nobody around for miles. My REAL parents took me in when I had nobody. My REAL parents cared for me and made sacrifices for my benefit no matter what. So no, I have no clue whether my biological parents are dead or not." Clark looked at the shock on Principal Flutie's face and sighed, feeling bad. "I'm sorry sir. I-I just get edgey when it comes to my geneology. I didn't mean to snap."

Flutie blinked twice, but then looked sympathetic towards Clark. "Oh, it's quite alright Clark, I understand why you're feeling this way. I just want you to know that this is a safe place, you don't have to be afraid of sharing what you feel. Let us know if you need anything to make Sunnydale High a more comfortable place for you. Get out there, meet some new people, make Sunnydale your home Clark. Have a good day, son." Flutie signaled for Clark to leave and he gladly stood up and walked out of the office.

When he walked out, Clark saw Xander kneeling on the ground holding a...stake? not judging or anything, but he doesn't have any clue why someone would have a stake on them. "Uhh Xander," He quickly spun around. "What's with the stake?"

Xander put on an awkward smile and patted Clark on the shoulder. "I took a swing at the new girl. I struck out. But it wasn't a total loss, I got her name!"

"Buffy, right?"

"Yeah. How'd you know."

"I just met her. Nice girl. Hey, on the topic of new people, I don't really know where any classes are."

"Don't worry CK, I got you covered. What's your first period?"

Clark pulled out his schedule and looked at the first class on the chart. "History with Mrs. Rochelle."

Xander gives a larger, more confidant smile and wraps his arm around Clark's shoulder, despite the reach. "My class is on the way there. CK, I feel like this is gonna be the start to a beautiful friendship." And so they walked down the halls.

After classes that restated everything he already knew-he nearly fell asleep in a few of them-Clark walked aimlessly through the halls, looking for the library. He admits he also walked around trying to get a decent layout of the school (eiditic memory, duh), but out of nowhere, for the second time that day, he ran into Willow. This time, literally. She seemed flustered and in a rush, not something unusual for high school, but if she was paying so little attention, something must be wrong.

"Hey Willow, where's the fire?" He joked, but she thought about it seriously.

"The 'fire' is one Cordelia Chase. She, uh, told me to leave...so...I did."

He gave a confused laugh. "Why? It's not like she has any rights over you."

"She's Cordelia Chase. She owns the school. Technically, I shouldn't be allowed to even look at her."

"Please don't tell me this is one of those pecking order high schools. Trust me when I say that from what I've heard of her and what I've seen from you, you deserve as much respect and compassion as Cordelia Chase and much more. Hey, I still don't really know anybody from here, mind if I sit with you during lunch or something? It would be cool to know more people here than Xander and my parents." He flashed a full smile and Willow thought that she was blind.

"Sure, that would be pretty cool, I guess." She smiled back. After a minute or so, they realized that their hands were still enjoined and they quickly pulled away.

"Hi. Willow right?" Buffy walked up to the aformentioned redhead, still creeped out by the stuffy, librarian trying to drag her back into the world that left her expelled from Hemery High. "And Clark. Nice suprise."

Willow's eyes went wide and she stuttered. "Why? I-I mean hi. Did you want us to move." Clark snorted, looked at Buffy, then Willow, then shook his head.

She was kinda miffed by his mocking, but shook it off. "How about we start with hi, then let's segway into me directly asking you for a favor. It doesn't involve moving, but it does involve hanging out with me for a while."

"But aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?"

"I can't do both?"

"Not legally."

Buffy sighed. "Look, I just wanna get by here. New school and Cordelia's been really nice...to me, anyway, but, um, I kinda have this burning desire not to flunk all my classes and I heard you were the person to talk to if you wanna get caught up."

Willow's eyes gained a spark. "Oh! I could totally help you out! If you have 6th period free, we could maybe meet up in the library."

"Or not." After seeing the confusion on Willow's face, she came up with an excuse. "We can meet someplace quieter. Louder. That place just kinda gives me the wiggins."

Clark's eyebrows drew together. He could basically see the cheap excuse-he'd mastered them, in fact. Before he could draw attention to it, Willow cut in. "It has that effect on most kids. I love it though, it's a great collection, and the new librarian is really cool." Buffy internally shivered and gagged at the very tought of the nutty librarian. Not a great memory. One part that stood out to her though...

"He's new?"

"Yea, he just started! He was curator at some British Museum. Or THE British Museum, I'm not really sure. But he knows everything and he brought these historical volumes and biographies and am I the single dullest person alive?"

Buffy smiled. "Not at all."

Clark spoke up for the first time since buffy arrived. "If that library tutelage offer is still on the table, I wouldn't mind taking it." He said with a shrug and a crooked smile.

She smiled back. "Sure Clar-" She was cut off by a familiar voice.

"What's up? You guys busy? We interrupting? We're interrupting." Xander began babbling, jumpin inbetween Buffy and Willow while Jesse stood outside of Clark.

"Hey." Buffy greeted. Xander tossed his bag to Jesse, who caught and flashed Buffy a cheeky grin. "Hey there." Jesse greeted back.

Willow introduced everyone. "Buffy, this is Jesse and that's Xander." She pointed to each respectively.

"Oh, me and Buffy go waaaay back. Old friends, very close. Then there was that period of estrangement where we were both growing as people, but here we are, like old times. I'm quite moved." Xander awkwardly rambled.

"Smooth Xander." Clark smirked and rolled his eyes.

Jesse dug in too. "Is it me, or are you turning into a bibbling idiot?"

"No, it's, uh, not you. Anyway, I'm not sure you two ladies have met yet CK this is Jesse, Jesse this is CK. Shake hands." Clark laughed and turned to Jesse, shaking his outstretched hand.

"Hey."

"Sup."

Buffy laughed uncomfortably. "Well it was nice meeting you guys, I think."

"Well, we wanted to welcome you, make you feel at home. Unless you have a scary home." Jesse explained while Xander reached into his backpack and pulled out the stake from earlier.

"And to return this. The only thing I can think is you're building a really tiny fence." He handed it to her and she quickly grabbed at it.

"Ha, no, um, actually it's for self-defence. Everyone has them in LA. Pepper spray is just so passe." That was a weak one, even by Clark's standards.

Xander sat down again. "So, what do you do you fun? What do you like? What do you look for in a man? Let's hear it."

Jesse got a word in as well. "If you've got any dark secrets you want us to publish."

Buffy suddenly seemed nervous. "Gee, everyone wants to know about me. How keen."

"Well not much goes down in a one Starbucks town like Sunnydale. You're pretty big news."

"I'm not. Really."

"You guys must score dates every night. What's your secret?" Clark said dryly and he got up to throw out his trash. When he came back he heard a snippet of a conversation with Buffy and someone he couldn't identify.

"-cancelled due to the extreme dead guy in the locker room." Clark's eyes widened. ' _Somebody was murdered? IN THE SCHOOL?!'_

"What are you talking about?" Willow asked confused.

"Some guy was stuffed in Aura's locker." The unknown voice again.

"Dead?"

"Totally dead, way dead." Clark was just listening wide eyed.

"So, not just a little dead then."

Clark made his presence known. "Dude, not the time." The unknown girl turned around and apparently liked what she saw. She smiled widely and stuck her hand out.

"Hi handsome, I'm Cordelia, and you must be the new guy. Can I get a name new guy?." So, this was Cordelia. He could practically see the spoiled brat in her roll off in waves.

"Clark Kent, hi." Damn the kind farmer side of him.

"You know, Cordelia, if you need a shoulder to cry on, or to nibble on." Jesse still tried to work his 'moves' on her.

Buffy cut in. "How did he die?" Clark arched an eyebrow at the oddity of the question.

"I don't know." Cordelia said condescendingly.

"Were there any marks?" Now she was bordering on suspicious, more and more weird questions slipped off her tongue.

"Morbid much? I didn't ask!" This time, he had to agree with her.

"I, uh, I gotta book. I'll see you guys later." The timing here was crazy suspicious and he felt he had a good reason to see what she's up to.

"What's her deal?" Clark cut in and decided to follow Buffy.

"Hey, Willow, I'll, uh, meet you at the library at 6th period, I'm just gonna go ahead and check out what they have there. See ya guys."

"Him too? What's everyone's deal?"

Clark kept a good distance away from Buffy, seeing her snoop around corners and rush through the school halls. When she arrived at the locker room, she tried pulling on it, but saw it was locked tight. He figured that would be it, but to his suprise, she grabbed onto the handle and pulled off the lock and part of the door in one pull. All he did was stand there, just thinking. ' _She said she's from LA. I didn't think anyone had powers from outside of the meteor shower. No wonder she had those terrible excuses, yet they don't match up. Why would she wanna avoid the library because of super-strength. There's more to Buffy Summers than I realize._ ' He heard Buffy exit the locker room and head in the opposite direction of him. He quickly looked around and ran into the locker room. The smell of the body made him gag. He walked over seeing the cover removed from his head. Said lifeless head had been shifted to the left, giving him a clear view of what he assumed to be the fatal blow. What he saw scared the crap out of him: two holes in his neck. Normally, he would dismiss it as an attack with a fork knife, but seeing the body pale and seemingly devoid of any blood, mixed in with seeing Buffy's strength, he thought it was safe to assume vampires or something like them were involved.

Clark's eyes flashed electric blue and he used his xray vision, for the first time in weeks, to find the Buffy ran off to. He was determined to get answers. He won't let another person die to some monster.

He couldn't live with himself if he did.

 **Yea, I'd say this was a job well done. Now we're gonna get to the meat of this arc. Remember to review and tell me your choice for the pairing. If no option gets at least 7 votes, I'm gonna stick to the pairing I planned. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**3rd chapter! Woo! Everything's going great so far, in my opinion. I'm not gonna say the exact numbers for the pairing, but so far, Buffy's in the lead, with Faith right behind her, and Cordelia in third. I decided that I'll expand the number of qualifying votes to 10 because at 7, I'm not sure everyone who wants to vote will be able to vote. I was suprised at the most common pairing is in the lead; I thought people would wanna see something new, but if it ain't brok, don't fix it. And the Clark/Buffy ship (Cluffy? Blark?) is definitely not broken. Enjoy the chapter!**

Clark ran through the halls, at a normal speed, of course, following Buffy and using his x-ray vision to track her every now and then. He was getting more and more furious with each bound. _'If she had something to do with that guy's murder, I won't hesitate to take her down'_ Clark thought grimly. He didn't want to hurt her, he actually could see them getting along really well if she didn't attack the unfortunate victim in the locker room, but he's gonna protect his new home. Clark thought back to his days as Smallville's guardian angel and groaned, thinking that he could never escape his self-appointed job as a hero.

He saw her burst through the door to the library, but he hung back just outside the door. He thought that maybe he could get some answers when he hears her ranting at someone else.

"Okay! What's the sitch?" She sounded annoyed, strange.

"Sorry?" A thick English accent traveled through the room, presumably the librarian Willow was going on about.

"You heard about the dead guy right? The dead guy in the locker." _'Why is she talking to the librarian about the dead guy? Something isn't adding up.'_ Clark thought with a frustrated look on his face.

"Yes."

"Cause, it's the weirdest thing. He's got two little little holes in his neck and his blood's been drained." Clark was even more confused now, if that was even possible. _'She sounds like she's blaming him. Was it really the librarian who killed that man?'_ "Isn't that bizarre?" _'Yes, it really is Buffy.'_ "Aren't you just going 'Oooh'?"

"I was afraid of this." Clark was just getting frustrated now. So many things were being insinuated, but they were all contradicted two seconds later.

"Well I wasn't. It's my first day. I was afraid that I was gonna be behind in all my classes, that I wouldn't make any friends, that I would have last month's hair." She sounded tired, kinda like he was back in Smallville. He had no clue why, though. "I didn't think there'd be vampires on campus." Clark's blood turned into ice. First meteor freaks, now vampires, hell, he didn't think that vampires even existed, much less acted as a threat to Sunnydale. "And I don't care."

"Then why are you here?"

"To...tell you that I don't care." She sounded like she even believed herself. "Which...I don't...and have now told you. So, bye."

"Is he-will he rise again?"

"Who?"

"The boy." He says as if it were obvious.

"No. He's just dead."

"Can you be sure?" At this point, even Clark thinks that he might wanna make sure

"To make you a vampier, they have to suck your blood, then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you." _'VERY reasuring'_ "Why am I still talking to you?"

"You really have no idea what's going on, do you?" Clark wanted to know as well. "You think it's coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning."

"Why can't you people just leave me alone?!"

"Because you are the Slayer. Into each generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a chosen one born with the-"

"Strength and skill to hunt the vampires and stop the spread of their evil blah blah blah. I've heard it, okay?"

"I really don't understand this attitude. You've accepted your duty, you've slain vampires before."

"Yeah, and I've both been there and done that and I'm moving on."

"What do you know about this town?"

"It's two hours on the freeway from Neiman Marcus?"

"Dig a bit in the history of the place and you'll find a steady stream of fairly odd occurances. I believe this whole are is a center of mystical energy. Things gravitate towards it that you might not find elsewhere."

"Like vampires."

"Like zombies, werewolves, incubii, succubii, everything that you dreaded was under your bed but couldn't be by the light of day. They're all real." Clark was almost shaking at this point. It was a huge truckload of new information that defied everything he thought he knew, even by his standards. He hasn't seen these creatures anywhere, where could they have been hiding?

"What? You, like, sent away for the Time-Life series

"Uh...oh, uh, yes."

"Did you get the free phone?"

"Um, the calendar."

"Cool. But, okay, first of all, I'm a vampire slayer and secondly, I'm retired. Hey, I know! Why don't you kill them?"

"I'm a Watcher. I haven't the skill." _'First monsters and slayers and now watchers? How many factions are out there?'_

"Oh, come on! Stake to the heart, a little bit of sunlight. It's like falling off a log."

"A slayer slays, a watcher-"

"Watches?"

"Yes- I...No! He-He trains her. He prepares her."

"Prepare me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to fight for my life and never telling anyone about it because it could put them in danger? Go ahead! Prepare me." She was sounding more and more like Clark's inner turmoil, and he was shocked that there was somebody he could relate to.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard Buffy approaching the door, so he booked it around the nearest corner. He walked back in the library after feeling sure that they were gone and when he walked in, he saw Xander, looking more confused than he'd ever been.

"Did you hear all of that too?" Xander just blankly nodded his head, mouth hanging low and eyes staring off into nothing.

"I'm not sure we were supposed to hear it though." Xander looked haunted.

"Well that's kind of a given. You think we should tell them that we know?" Xander looked afraid and was oddly not incessantly rambling. Then the bell rang, making Xander jump several feet in the air. "Meet me outside of here after school. Dang, I'm gonna have to tell Willow to raincheck. Xander, look at me." His eyes snapped to Clark. "Just go to class and settle down, we'll figure it all out later, okay?" When Xander nodded, he walked out and ran back to grab his books and head to class.

Meanwhile, in a hellish-looking cave, candles were set up all over the walls and floor. An old man was sitting on a rock, with what looks like a throne nearby, whilst a younger man walks towards him with a torch in hand. Several other figures were in the vicinity and a vampire, with his face in full demon form, spoke loudly throughout the cave.

"The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. Amen!" The vampire recited the chant ominously.

Clark was walking with Xander towards the club Xander kept going on about. Clark was getting more and more annoyed by Xander's rambling, which had somehow resurface somewhere throughout the afternoon.

"But if these monsters have been around the whole time, why haven't we ever seen them? I mean seriously, they can't be that good at hiding. But what if they are that good? Could anybody be a zombie? That's insane, huh, Clark?"

"Totally." He said not paying attention instead focusing on the giant building that looked like it was used for mod dealings before it became a club. He pulled out a twenty and gave it to the bouncer. Immediately he felt out of place. He wasn't the clubbing type, he only really went there to make Xander feel better about the whole monsters thing.

"I don't know if I should be here! Clubbing's not really my thing!"

"What?! I didn't hear you!"

"CLUBBING'S NOT REALLY MY THING!"

"OH! THE BAND'S PRETTY COOL THOUGH!"

"YEAH, I GUESS YOU'RE RIGHT!" Clark looked around trying to spot anybody else that he knows, when he saw the very person, or people, that he wanted to see. "XANDER, LET'S GO UPSTAIRS! I THINK WE CAN GET THOSE ANSWERS WE WERE LOOKING FOR!"

Xander saw who Clark was looking at and ran through the crowd without saying a word. "XANDER! HOLD UP!"

Buffy was extremely ticked off. She was having a nice talk with Willow, possibly setting her up for a date when she notice that British prude A.K.A. Giles the Librarian on the second floor. Seriously, what is this guy's problem? Is it so hard to just leave a girl alone?

"So, you like to party with the students. Isn't that kinda skanky?" He looked unamused.

"Right. This is me having fun. Watching...clown hair prance around is hardly my idea of a party. I'd much rather be at home with a cup of Bovril and a good book." Geez, how stuffy and boring is this guy?

"You need a personality, stat."

"This," He gestured to the entire club. "Is a perfect breeding ground for vampire activity. It's dark. It's crowded. Besides, I knew you would show up and I HAVE to make you understand-"

"That the Harvest is coming, I know. Your friend told me."

"What did you say?"

"The Harvest. That mean something to you? Cause I'm drawing a blank."

"I'm not sure. Who told you this?"

"This...guy. Dark, gorgeous in an annoying sort of way. I figured you two were buds."

"No...the Harvest. Did he say anything else?"

"Yeah, something about the mouth of hell. I really didn't like him." She turned away, frustrated.

Giles paused, forming an idea of what to do. "Look at them, throwing themselves about, completely unaware of the danger that surrounds them."

"Lucky them." She said, lost in her melancholy thoughts.

"Well, perhaps you're right. Perhaps there is no trouble coming, the signs could be wrong." She hoped that was true, but knowing her luck, that wouldn't be the case. "It's not as though you've been having the nightmares."

A few minutes later, they moved to a point just above the dance floor, still debating on whether or not Buffy should respond to the great evil approaching.

"I didn't say I'd never slay a vampire. It's not like I have all these fluffy-bunny feelings for them, I'm just not gonna get way extracurricular. If I see one, sure-"

"Will you be ready? There's so much you don't know about them, about your own powers. A vampire appears to be completely normal, untilthe feed is upon them, only then do they reveal their true demonic visage."

"You're like a textbook with arms; I know this."

"Point is, a slayer should be able to see them anyway, without looking, without...thinking. Can you tell me if there's a vampire in this building?"

"Maybe."

"You should know. Even through this mass, in this...din. You should be able to sense them. Well? Try. Reach out with your mind. Hone your senses. Focus until the energy washes over you, until you feel every particle of it."

"There's one." She responded almost immediately.

"Wh-where?"

"Right there." She pointed to a horribly dressed teen on the dance floor. "Talking to that girl."

Giles scoffs. "You don't know that."

"Oh, please. Look at his jacket-he's got the sleeves rolled up. And the shirt-deal with that outfit for a moment."

"It's dated?"

"It's carbon-dated. Trust me, only someone who's been living underground for 10 years would think that's still the look."

"But you didn't...hone."

"Oh, no."

"Isn't that-"

"Willow." And just as she said, there was Willow Rosenberg, flirting with the guy identified as a vampire.

"What's she doing?"

"Seizing the moment." As she was about to get down there, an angry looking Clark and Xander ran towards the watcher and slayer.

"Hey! Buffy! Librarian guy!" Xander called for them.

"Hey, Xander, Clark. I would love to hang out, but I gotta...get back home. My mom's expecting me soon."

Clark shot back, sick of waiting. "Cut the act Buffy, we want answers! We know about the slayers and vampires and watchers, and-"

"Fine! Good for you, you figured it out! Now I need to go, Willow is with those vampires you were ranting about!" Clark's eyes widen and Xander goes full freakout mode.

"We have to go do something!"

"Yeah, we do, but after we help Willow," He looked pointedly at Giles. "you're giving us real answers."

"Yeah, no. You two aren't coming." And she walked off. Xander turned to Clark and nodded, Clark nodded back. Giles saw the look pass between them and intervened.

"I would advise against your current course of action." The ignored him and followed Buffy. "But what do I know?"

Buffy was looking around outside, searching almost aimlessly. Clark and Xander walked up to her once again, more nervous after noticing the lack of Willow's presence.

"You haven't found her yet?!" Clark asked with extreme worry.

"Give me a break, they're not the easiest monsters to find!"

"You're supposed to be the slayer. At least, you think you're the slayer, but-" Buffy stopped Xander's ramblings.

"Look, it doesn't matter! Where would Willow go?"

"You're serious."

"If we don't find her, there's gonna be one more dead body in the morning."

Xander, for the first time that night, went completely serious. "I think I have an idea."

When the three found Willow, there were suprised to see Jesse there with another vampire too. Buffy stepped foward, more comfortable in these situations.

"Well, this is nice. It's a little bare, but a dash of paint, a few throw pillows, call it home."

Clark leaned to Xander. "Is it just me or does she seem way more relaxed?"

"Who the hell are you?" The female vampire, Darla, asked, amused.

"You mean there's actually someone in this town who doesn't know already? Phew, that's a relief, I'm telling you, having secret identity in this town is a job of work."

"Buffy, we bail now right?"

"Not yet." The male vampire snarled.

"Okay, first of all, what's with the outfit, live in the now, okay. You look like DeBarge!" All of this was while Darla stalked up behind Buffy. She turned around first. "Well, we can do this the hard way or...actually, there's just the hard way."

"That's fine with me."

"Are you sure? Now, this is not gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content..." Just as she said that , the male vampire jumps at Buffy, but she pulls out the chair leg, turned makeshift stake and cleany stabs him in the chest. As he falls backwards, gasping for breath, he turnes into ashes. Everyone, including the female vampire looks shocked, Clark, though, has a calculating look with watching Buffy. _'Strength along with enhanced speed and reflexes. Interesting.'_

"See what happens when you roughhouse?"

The single remaining vampire gained an enraged look. "He was young and stupid."

"Xander, Clark, go!" Both of the boys moved to get Jesse and Willow; Xander helped Willow to her feet, while Clark lifted Jesse up on his shoulder.

"Don't go far." Darla proceeded to attack Buffy, leaving her to defend and counter. Darla threw a wide right hook, Buffy bringing up both her hands to block the strong swing. The blonde vampire threw a hook the opposite way, and with Buffy more prepared, she batted the arm away and drove a knee to her gut, folding her down. For even more, Buffy powered her elbow down over Darla's back.

With the sound of fighting behind them, Clark called Xander over. "Xander, take Jesse!" He moved Jesse's arm to Xandar's shoulders. "I'll go help Buffy." And so he ran back while Xander carried Jesse away.

Buffy didn't need help, though, she finished the fight just fine, bringing Darla to the ground. "You know, I just wanted to start over, be like everyone else. Have some friends, ya'know maybe a dog. But no," She kicked Darla back down as she was getting up. "You had to come here; you couldn't go suck on some other town."

Darla looked up with fear. "Who are you?"

"Don't you know?" Suddenly a large hand grabbed the back of her neck and lifted her several feet off the ground. The chanting vampire from the cave spoke in her ear.

"I don't care." And he threw her into a wall, knocking her out. He turned and grabbed Darla's arm roughly. "You were supposed to be bringing an offering for the Master. We're almost at harvest and you dally with this child?"

"We had someone, but then she came. She killed Thomas." She looked genuinely terrified. "Luke, she's strong."

"You go, I'll see if I can handle the little girl." As he was approaching the rising Buffy, a blur flashed in and rammed Luke into the opposite wall. Buffy looked at Clark wide-eyed.

"H-how did you do that?" He looked back at her with sad eyes.

"You're not the only one who's forced to keep a secret."

The huge vampire rose up again. "You're strong. Let's see who's stronger." Luke snarled and jumped at the two.

Willow, Xander, and Jesse were running through the graveyard trying to get away, but they were surrounded by vampires.

"No freakin' way." Xander stood petrified.

When Lunk went airborn, Buffy rolled away under him and Clark super-sped around him. Buffy stared at him again. _'What is he exactly?'_ Clark urgently looked towards Buffy.

"How do you kill these guys?"

"Other than sunlight, stake to the heart, fire."

"Damn, summoning fire would be pretty awesome right about now. Where's that stake you had?" Buffy pointed to the broken pieces under Luke's foot. "Oh...no freakin' way."

"Never a dull night, huh?" Buffy smirked and got into a fighting position while Clark clenched his fists. Luke smirked and ran at them, but this time, they were ready.

 **First episode: done! I promise the episodes won't all take three chapters, but this was an origin story, ya'know. Remember to vote for your choice pairing. First lady to 10 wins! Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, it's ya boy...skinny pen- NO! No vines here! I'm sorry guys, it's Great Rao, and, uh, forget it, this whole thing is ruined. I really don't know what that whole bit was, but I'm back for a new chapter and so far, the poll is going great. Buffy is still in first and Faith is second, but Willow came out of nowhere and got ahead of Cordelia. I had no clue people wanted Willow as a pairing. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

When Luke lunged at the two, Buffy took a few steps back, whil Clark stayed in place. Clark swung out a wild fist as he approached, but Luke dodged it, suprised him bygrabbing him from behind and throwing him through a wall. Smiling, he turned to Buffy.

"Well, sorry to see he didn't last too long." Buffy ran at him, feined a punch up high and threw a precise kick to his knee, almost snapping it, and brought Luke down to one knee. Buffy punshed him hard in the face. Once-the jaw, twice-the temple, but on the third punch, he caught her hand and started squeezing. When Buffy's fist felt like it was going to break, Clark ran in and sent a powerful uppercut to Luke, sending him soaring out of the crypt entirely.

"You alright, Buffy?" She looked up and saw the sparkling eyes she remembered from the first time they met. His calming smile made her heart thump furiously and there were a few loose strands of hair reaching down his face that she wanted to brush away. She looked away though, remembering Willow, Xander, and Jesse.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What about the others?"

"I don't know, I left Jesse with Xander and came back to help. Let me take a look at your hand." He reached for it, but she pulled away.

"I said I'm fine, remember?" He gave an 'are you serious?' look and reached for her hand again, this time she didn't pull away.

"Just trust me." His eyes flashed and he looked at Buffy's hand, inspecting for any serious injury. "If you leave it alone, you'll be able to walk outta here with a few bruises, but if you put any more pressure on it, it will fracture. But I'm pretty sure you're gonna ignore everything I say, so just take it easy."

"How could you know that?"

"I've read a lot of medical books."

"Let's try the truth now, maybe? Kinda pointless to lie with, ya'know, me knowing your secret and all."

Clark sighed. "I have, uh, x-ray vision."

Buffy stepped back. "Yeah, no. I'm not cool with that."

"Wha- I- No! I wouldn't use it like that, plus I have to concentrate. I'm pretty sure you'd notice if I was peeking."

"Whatever, we gotta go find the others."

"Agreed."

They walked out of the crypt and immediately heard a high-pitched scream. They were obviously gonna go after it, noting that it was probably Willow. When they got there, they found a vampire trying to bite Willow, who was barely holding it back. Seeing that Xander wasn't with her and knowing that Buffy could handle one normal vampire, he elected to search fro Xander. He turned around in a 360, using his x-ray vision and saw two non-beating hearts dragging a still-beating heart. He ran at them, focusing on the first one, and punching it in the face, sending it's head off of it's shoulders, immediately turning it to ash.

"Huh, that's useful." The other vampire ran at Clark and punched him in the back of the head. It's hand almost instantly went completely limp and it cried out in pain. Clark turned and back-handed it into a tree. When he ran over, he saw it was impaled on a branch, turning it to ash, just like it's friend. Clark turned back to Xander and kneeled next to him.

"Xander. Come get up, man." He slowly moved the brunette teen into a sitting position while he regained conciousness. Buffy and Willow ran to them as well, Willow moving to Xander to help him sit up.

"Are you okay?" She asked with worry.

He gripped his head, feeling a headache come along. "Man, something hit me."

Buffy noticed the lack of their fifth person. "Where's Jesse?"

"I don't know, they surrounded us."

"The girl grabbed him and took off." Xander remembered what happened bit by bit.

"Which way?"

"I don't know."

Buffy was looking around the graveyard, trying to look for any sign of their missing friend. "Jesse."

The four of them were back in the library with Giles, three of the four waiting for an explaination about everything.

"This world is older than you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the earth. They made it their home, their...hell. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for man. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges-certain magics, certain creatures."

"Like vampires." Buffy helped to explain while icing her hand. Xander found this to be the tipping point.

"Okay, this is where I have a problem. See, we're talking about vampires. We're having a talk with vampires in it."

"Isn't that what we saw last night?" Willow was still a bit shaken up.

Buffy tried to placate the situation. "No. No, th-those weren't vampires, thaose were just guys in thundering need of a facial. Or maybe they had rabies! It could've been rabies, and that guy turning to dust, just a trick of the light." Clark shot her a look. "That's exactly what I said the first time I saw a vampire. Well, after I was done with the screaming part." Willow looked sick

"Oh, I-I need to sit down."

"You are sitting down."

"Oh, good for me."

Clark analyzed the situation. "So, vampires are demons, like zombies and werewolves and all those other things?"

Giles looked up. "The bookes telly us that the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human. Mixed their blood. He was a human form possesed. Infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walked the earth. Feeding, killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return. All of the others, simply spawns of the magics left behind. All of these, combatted by the slayer."

"And that would be a what?"

"As long as there have been vampires, there's been the slayer. One girl in all the world, a chosen one.

"He loves this part." Buffy adds cheekily.

"Alright. The slayer hunts vampires, Buffy's a slayer, don't tell anyone. And I think that's all the vampire information you need."

"Except for one thing, how do you kill them?"

"You don't, I do." She looked pointedly at Xander.

"Jesse's my-"

"Jesse is my responsibility. I let him get taken."

"That's not true."

"If you hadn't shown up, they would've taken us too." She look horrified at the thought. "Does anybody mind if I pass out?"

Buffy puts her hand on Willow's shoulder. "Breathe."

"Breathe." Willow repeats.

"This big guy Luke. He talked about an offering to the master. Now, I don't know what or who, but if they weren't just feeding, Jesse may still be alive. I'm gonna find him."

"Um, this may be the dumb question, but should we call the police?" Willow asked meekly.

"Well, they'll believe us, of course." Giles stood up and began walking around.

"But we don't have to say vampires, w-we can just say there's a...bad man."

"They couldn't handle it even if they did show up. They only come with guns."

"Yeah, cops tend to be pretty useless in these situations." They all looked at Clark. "Just an educated guess."

Giles steered the conversation back. "You have no idea where they took Jesse?"

"I looked around, but as soon as they got out of the graveyard, they could have just-foom." She made a gesture of running or flying.

"They can fly?"

"They can drive."

"Oh."

"I don't remember hearing a car."

"Let's take an enormous intuitive leap and say they went underground."

"Vampires really jam on sewer systems. You can get anywhere in the entire town without getting any rays. But, I didn't see any access around there."

"Well, there's an electrical tunnel that runs under the whole town."

"If we get a diagnostic of the tunnel, it might determine a meeting place. I suppose we could go to the building commision."

"We so don't have time."

"Uh, guys, you meant this right?" Clark walked up to them and handed them the blueprints he swiped from the commision. Giles looked at him with wide eyes.

"How did you-?"

"Let's find Jesse now, I'll explain later."

Giles shook his head and laid the blueprints out on a table. Willow pointed to a section of the tunnel. "That runs under the graveyard."

"I don't see any access."

"Clark, how did you convince them to let you take this?"

"Ya'know, charming smile and, uh, my trustworthy personality?"

"There's nothing here, this is useless!" Buffy flailed her arms in frustration.

"You're being a bit hard on yourself."

"You're the one that told me I wasn't prepared enough. Understatement. I thought I was on top of everything and then that monster Luke came out of nowhere-" She thought back to what happened when Luke grabbed her neck. She didn't remember him coming from the sides, he appeared-

"What"

"He didn't come out of nowhere, he came from behind me. I was facing the entrance, he came from behind me, and he didn't follow me out. The access to the tunnels is in the mausoleum! The girl must have double back with Jesse after I got out! God! I'm so mentally challenged!"

"So what's the plan? We saddle up, right?"

"...There's no 'we', okay? I'm the slayer and you're not."

Xander laughed with no mirth. "I knew you'd throw that back at my face."

"Xander, this is deeply dangerous!"

"I'm inadequate. Fine, I'm less than a man." He walked away.

"Buffy, I'm not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters, but I do wanna help. I need to."

"Then help me." Giles leaned foward. "I've been researching this Harvest affair. It seems to be some sort of preordained massacre. Rivers of blood, hell on earth, quite charmless. I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details. It may be that you can wrest some imformation from that dread machine." Thay all look at him. "That was a bit, um, British, wasn't it?"

Buffy smiles. "Welcome to the new world."

"I want you to go on the net."

"Oh, sure I can do that." She immediately begins to type.

"Then I'm outta here. If Jesse's alive, I'll bring him back."

"Do I have to tell you to be careful?" She doesn't say anything, but begins to walk away.

"Buffy." She turns around to see Clark stepping foward. "I'm coming with you."

"I already explained Clark, I'm the slayer."

"Yeah, I know, but I'm invincible and can lift a semi." He turns to Giles, Willow, and Xander who look at him with wide eyes. "Long story, which I'll explain after Buffy and I bring Jesse back."

Buffy glared at him. "Fine, but while we're out there, you follow my lead."

Clark gave a lazy salute. "Sir, yes sir." He smirked and followed her out to the hall.

"He wasn't serious about that whole semi thing right?" Xander looked oddly at Giles

"By the gods, I hope not."

The two walked through the halls, trying to be inconspicuous enough to sneak off of school grounds. That being said, they weren't very good at it-they only made it to the side gate when they were promptly stopped by Principal Flutie

"And where do we think we're going?"

"Um, we? Us two."

"We're not leaving school grounds are we?"

"No! No, I'm just...admiring the fence! This is quality fence work."

Clark smirked. "And what's so funny mister?" Clark then frowned.

"Nothing sir! I'm just...stretching my jaw."

"Good. You know, if we were leaving school grounds on the second day of the new school, after you," He points to Buffy. "were kicked out of your old school for deliquent behavior. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Mr. Giles."

"...What?"

"He asked us to get a book for him. From the store because we both have a free period and I love reading. Did it mention that on my transcripts?"

"Mr. Giles."

"Ask him."

"Well, maybe that's how they do things in Britain, they've got that royal family and all those problems, but here in Sunnydale, nobody leaves campus while school's in session."

"...Um, sir, I think that's kinda culturally insensitive."

"Yes, I think it was. Are we all clear here?"

"Clear."

"Clear."

"See these are the students I want, Clark Kent and Buffy Summers, sensible kids with their feet on the ground." At with that, he left.

Buffy looked at Clark, who looked back at her, both of them smirking at that irony of what they were about to do. Without thinking they both jumped over the fence, with Clark going a little bit higher than intended, leaving him to nearly fall on his face.

"Careful there, we don't want you getting hurt now." She had a teasing grin on her face and Clark blushed, embarrassed.

"It's not exactly easy to control."

"Yeah, yeah, let's go ya big baby."

Buffy had to say, going to the graveyard in the middle of the day was much better than in the night. It's not like it scared her or anything, but it was annoying trekking through pitch black dodging headstones while killing vampires. They reached the mausoleum fairly quickly, seeing it stick out more during the day. When they entered, they saw the locked gate when Clark stepped foward to break the chain another figure walked up behind them. Buffy seemed to know who it was and spoke to him.

"I don't suppose you've got a key on you."

"They really don't like me dropping in."

"Why not?"

"They really don't like me."

"How could that possibly be?"

"I knew you'd figure out this entry way sooner or later. Actually, I thought it was going to be a little sooner."

"Sorry you had to wait."

"Buffy, who is this guy?"

"I don't know his name- he told me about the Harvest. While we're on your name, if you're gonna be popping up with this cryptic wise man act on a regular basis, can you at least tell me your name."

"Angel."

"Angel. It's a pretty name." They both turned back to the gate where Clark reached to break it when Angel interrupted again.

"Don't go down there."

"Sorry buddy, we're on a tight schedule, deal with it." Clark snapped, annoyed with this guy already.

"You shouldn't be putting yourselves at risk." Clark could tell he didn't give a damn about him, but he did for Buffy. "Tonight is the Harvest. Unless you can prevent it, the Master walks."

"Well, if this Harvest thing is such a suckfest, why don't you stop it?"

"Cause I'm afraid."

Clark turned and punched the gate knocking the gate and part of the wall several feet away. "You can stay afraid up here, big guy."

Angel smirked at Clark, intrigued with him all of a sudden, and looked between him and Buffy. "They'll be expecting you."

Buffy walked up to him. "I've got a friend down there, or at least, a potential friend. Do you know what it's like to have a friend?" He paused, not knowing what to say. "That wasn't supposed to be a stumper." He was quite for a bit more.

"When you hit the tunnels, head East, towards the school. That's where you're likely to find them."

"You gonna wish me luck?" Clark didn't like how she said 'me' instead of 'us', like she was falling for that undead pretty boy. _'Ha, yeah right. Go prowl around teenagers somewhere else.'_ Buffy walked into the tunnels and Clark stayed watching Angel for a bit more.

"You better not try anything on her. She'll kick your ass and leave me to deal with the scraps, but believe me when say that worse than she is if I'm angry. Watch your step Angel." _'Woah Clark, where did that come from? Since when do you threaten people? Since I found out a vampire was stalking Buffy, duh.'_

"Keep her safe, Clark." And he left too. Satisfied, Clark walked in after Buffy and jogged to catch up with her. One thing stayed in his mind though. 'How did he know my name?'

A bit later, the two were walking down several corridors in silence. The sound of water drops were only overpowered by the clacking of Buffy's shoes on the concrete floors. They were looking down two different turns when Xander appeared out of nowhere and scared the two, making them jump.

"Xander, what are you doing here?!" Buffy whisper-shouted, if that makes sense.

"Something stupid. I followed you two."

"Well you-"

"I couldn't just sit at home and do nothing."

"I understand, now go away."

"No."

"Xander, you're gonna have to. It's dangerous." Clark agreed.

"Look, Jesse's my bud, okay. If I can help him out, that's what I'm gonna do."

Buffy relented signaled her head to follow, while Clark gestured for Xander to follow Buffy, while Clark follows Xander.

"Besides, it's this or...chem. class."

The ragtag group of vampire hunters were moving down a smaller hallway. Along with smaller, it was getting darker, leading Clark to believe they were going the right way.

"They're close."

"How can you tell?"

"No more rats." So, that explains it.

Clark saw something in the dark, pointed to it and Xander turned on his flashlight. To his shock, it was Jesse, lying there, looking completely worn out.

"Jesse!"

Buffy gasped "Oh, no."

All three ran to where Jesse was lying and saw that he was chained up. Jesse jumped up with a pipe and shouted at them, but Clark caught the pipe before Jesse hit Xander. He saw who he was attacking and immediately gasped.

"Xander." The two friends hugged, glad to see each other safe.

"Jesse are you okay?" Jesse pulled back and looked at Xander.

"I am not okay. On a epic scale."

"We gotta get out of here." Buffy went down to inspect something on Jesse's ankle while Clark put his hand on Jesse's shoulder.

"Good to see you okay Jesse."

"Thank God you guys came, CK, it was brutal."

"Don't worry, Buffy and CK are like superheroes or something."

"Hold on." Buffy said while reaching to break the chain on Jesse's leg. She smashed it open, kinda loudly too.

"You think anyone heard that?" Just as Xander said it, they heard footsteps nearing closer to them, startling the four of them to scramble away.

They made it a fair distance away before they slowed down to walking pace.

"They knew you were gonna come, said I was the bait."

"Great, now you tell us."

They turn another corner to see a quite ugly vampire waiting for them. "Oops." Buffy squeaked.

"Oh, no no no no." Jesse started going hysterical.

"Do you know another way out?"

"I don't know, maybe." Strangely the vampire didn't follow them when they all took off running.

"Wait, wait, they brought me through here. There should be another way up." Clark was still thinking as they approached a dead end. _'Vampires haven't been attacking us. We've seen plenty, they should've jumped us by now. That means...'_

Clark x-rayed Jesse and his eyes widened.

"I don't think this is the way out."

"Buffy! Xander! It's a trap! Jesse's a vampire!"

"What? What are you talking about CK?"

"Way to ruin a good suprise Clark." Jesse turns around revealing his 'demon face'. "Trust me, it was a killer." Xander and Buffy stared wide-eyed and their former friend

 **And, there we go, another chapter all finished. Next time is the conclusion to the Harvest. Remember to request the girl you want as a pairing. First to 10 wins! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey wassup you freaks! I don't mean that, I think you guys are all normal. Well, normal is relative, so whatever is your normal, I think you're that normal. Rambling aside, I realized that I haven't done this at all, but I do not own neither Smallville/Superman or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The former is owned by DC Comics and The CW Network. The latter is owned by and created by Joss Whedon. If this isn't neccissary, then could you guys tell me in the review section, writing it for each chapter will get really boring further down the line. In a crazy twist Queen C has gotten several votes, beating Faith and nearly tieing with Buffy. Remember to leave your requests either in the reviews section or PM me. Hope you enjoy the chapter, this is gonna be the final chapter of the 'origin story'.**

The three stared at their former friend in horror, Xander felt an unbearable pain in his chest at the loss of his friend, Buffy felt sad knowing at what she had to do, and Clark, he felt a swell of guilt at the knowledge that with all of his powers he failed to save someone who could've been a great friend.

"Jesse, man, I'm sorry." Xander croaked out

"Sorry?! I feel good Xander! I feel strong! I'm connected man, to everything! I can hear the worms in the earth."

"That's a plus."

"I know what the Master wants. I'll serve his purpose. That means you die. And I feed." He added a menacing growl at the end, which made Xander step back a bit.

"Xander, the cross!" Buffy shouted from behind the door. Clark barely registered her presence, but focused solely on Jesse. Xander raised his cross and Jesse jumped back.

"Jesse, no. We're buds, don't you remember?"

"You're like a shadow to me now!" He growled in apprehension.

"Get out of my face."

Jesse jumped to the side and swatted Xander's wrist, knocking the cross out of Xander's hand. Buffy ran up to him while his back was turned, grabbed him, and threw him into the hallway with a mob of vampires approaching the room. Buffy ran to the jammed door and continued to try to force it shut.

"Clark! Door! Now!" He shook his head and turned quickly. He grabbed the door and with one hand, he slammed the door, severing the limb of a vampire who stuck his arm in the doorway. The severed arm turned to dust, while the vampire's cries were drowned out the the pounding on the locked door.

"We need to get out of here."

"There is no out of here." Xander shined his flashlight all around to prove his point. Instead, he was able to find a vent.

"Look! Up there!" Clark nodded and tore the vent plate in one clean tug.

"C'mon, you guys first! Let's go!" He motioned for Xander to go first. He ran up and Clark gave him a boost up. "You next Buffy!" She ran up and he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up to the vent. Several vampires broke past the door and tried to dogpile on Clark, but everytime he threw one off, they would soon jump right back on. Some began to bite him, none broke skin, some even cried in pain, but at the same time, they hurt- a lot.

"Clark!" Buffy cried out in terror, seeing The vampires jump Clark.

"GO BUFFY! I'LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" He looked her in the eyes and a look passed between them. She hesitantly turned around as Clark punched a vamp' so hard his hand went strait through his head, immediately dusting him.

Buffy and Xander made it to the ladder and quickly climbed up to the surface, the sounds of fighting slowly dieing away. The two practically passed out on the ground, Xander craned his neck upward and looked at Buffy, but something was wrong. Xander noticed the presence, or lack thereof of their 3rd member.

"Buffy."

"Yeah Xander?"

"Um, where's CK?"

Buffy shot up at the waist, her eyes almost bulging out. "Oh God!" She ran over to the manhole. "Clark!"

Xander jumped up as well. "What happened?!"

"The vampires broke through and swarmed Clark! I-he told me he would be right behind me!" Suddenly there was rumbling in the vents and loud grunting resounding all the way out to the surface. Xander jumped and Buffy whirled around, knowing a vampire wouldn't be stupid enough to attack her in broad daylight, but still being prepared for anything. A hand shot up and gripped the outside of the manhole, sending a web of cracks through the concrete. To accompany the hand, Clark's head popped up into the sunlight.

"See, told ya I'd be fine." He pulled himself out to the surface and smiled at the two, both of whom were wide-eyed. Buffy ran up and wrapped her arms around Clark's neck, burying her head in his shoulder, thankful he was alive. She pulled back and stared at Clark in confusion.

"Wha-how?" Xander cut in, fanboy-ing

"No freakin' way! You beat all those vamps?! By yourself?!"

"Uh, yeah, I guess."

"Dude, you're like an uber-slayer! Think about it: Clark the Uber-Slayer!"

"Yeah, sounds great Xander. I'd prefer to get back to Giles about now, tell him about the whole deal."

"Yeah, dude, let's go! Willow's gonna flip!" And he walked away, still fanboy-ing.

Buffy held his shoulder, stopping him from walking with Xander. "What about Jesse?"

Clark looked down, eyes sad. "I-I couldn't do it. I knocked him out before I came up here, but I couldn't bear killing him."

Buffy's eyes softened. "Clark, he's already dead. I'm sorry and I know it's gonna be tough, but if you get another chance, you have to dust him." Clark nodded and walked ahead. With a sigh, Buffy looked back towards the manhole, then jogged after Clark and Xander.

The valiant heroes walked into the library, where Willow was still researching with Giles.

"Did you find Jesse?" Xander's fanboy smile immediately dropped in rememberance.

"Oh, yeah." They all shuffled to the center of the library in sadness.

"Is he dead?"

"Worse. I'm sorry Willow, we were too late and they were waiting for us."

"At least you three are okay." Xander violently kicked a recycling bin, stratling the others.

"I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."

"So Giles, got anything that could make this day worse?"

He walked up to a whiteboard, also downtrodden. "How about the endo of the world?"

"Knew I could count on you."

He ignored her. "This is what we know: some 60 years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, not just to feed."

"He came cause this town's a mystical whozit."

"Yes, the Spanish who first settled here called it 'Boca del Infierno'. Roughly translated, 'Hellmouth'. A sort of, um, portal between this reality and the next. This vampire hoped to open it."

"To bring the demons back."

"End of the world."

"But he blew it. Or, I mean, there was an earthquake that swallowed half the town, and him too."

"You see, opening dimensional portals is tricky business. Odds are, he got himself stuck, like a cork in a bottle."

"And this Harvest thing is to get him out." Clark rationalized.

"It comes once in a century. On this night. The Master can draw power from one of his minions. Enough power to break free and open the portal. The minion is called the Vessel and he bears this symbol." He draws what looks to be a three-pointed star.

"So, I dust anyone who wears that symbol, no Harvest."

"Simply put, yes."

"Any idea where this little get together is being held?"

"There are a number of possibilities."

"They're going to the Bronze." Xander stated, assuredly.

"Are you sure?"

"Come on. All those tasty young morsels all over the place? Anyway, that's where Jesse's gonna be, trust me."

"Then we should get there." Giles grabs his jacket and walks to the doors, the others follow suit. "The sun will be down before long."

"I gotta make a stop. It won't take long."

"What for?"

"Supplies."

Clark was in his new home, putting on his red jacket over a blue shirt. They were the most basic pieces of clothing in his closet, making them rather expendable, plus, they were cheap. He was heading down and about to meet up with Giles and the Bronze, but was stopped by the stern call from his father.

"Clark, son, come here please." He said more as a command, than a request.

"Uh, yeah dad?" He meekly popped his head in the kitchen where his mom and dad were.

"So, we got a call from your principal today. Wanna explain?" Jonathan's jaw was tightened, while Martha had a soft smile and sympathetic eyes.

"I had to help a friend. He was, uh, getting mugged." Clark winced internally.

"Nice story son, but I wanna know why you weren't at school for more than half a day."

Clark sighed and closed his eyes. "This is gonna be hard to explain, but there are a lot of problems going on with this town, worse than Smallville with the meteor freaks, and it could literally mean the end of the world." Martha's eyes widened, knowing Clark's not one to lie, especially about the safety of others.

"Clark, sweetie, what are these problems?" She asked slowly.

"You're not gonna believe it at first, but vampires exist. They killed a boy just before my first day and they turned one of my friends into them. I was gone today because I was trying to find him, but when I did, he led me into a trap and tried to kill me." Clark was careful not to use words like 'we' or 'us', he knew they would ask, and it's not his secret to tell. Martha ran up and hugged her son while Jonathan looked down, almost not believing it. He probably wouldn't if he wasn't told about them by his alien son who used to fight mutants every other week.

"I'm so sorry Clark." She looked at him with sad eyes then stepped back.

"Son, I'm not sure it's a good idea to go out there."

"And why not, dad?"

"Why do you think? What have we been protecting for the last 15 years?" Clark could see his dad was worried, he knew that if his secret was revealed, he would be cut open on a cold slab of metal. Yet he still snapped back.

"Dad, I know what you're doing, and I appreciate it, but this is more important than my secret. It's either my secret or the lives of everyone on the planet. There's no question, I have to go." Jonathan clenched his fist, truly terrified about what was happening. He knew since they found Clark in his spaceship that he had a greater calling, that he would have to share the gift of his son with the rest of the planet. He was terrified that he would need to share him so soon.

"I know son." He smiled, but his eyes went glassy with tears. "I always knew that you wouldn't hesitate to help someone in need. It's who you are. I think it's time you showed those monsters who you are too." Clark smiled back at his dad then, then looked at his mom, who had tears going down her face. He stepped foward and pulled them into a hug. When they let go, Clark smiled one last time before running to the Bronze.

The group of five ran up to the front door of the Bronze, Buffy trying at the door to no evail.

"It's locked."

"We're too late." Giles paced, frustrated.

"I didn't know I was gonna get grounded!"

"Can you break it down?"

"We break it down, the vampires start killing off the people and taking hostages." Clark warned against it.

"You guys try the entrance. Clark, go look for another way."

"Gotcha." And he sped off, around the building.

"Guys, here." She handed them her bag of weapons for the vampires. "You get the exit cleared and the people out. That's all. Don't go wild bunch on me."

"See you inside then." They ran to the back entrance while Clark skid to a stop near Buffy.

"None on the sides of the bulding, lookes like we're going up." He grabbed her waist and jumped to the roof, where they found an opening and climbed through. Buffy crawled out first, followed by Clark.

"I can feel the Master's strength growing!" They heard a vampire, most like the Vessel announce. "I feel them...rising! Every soul brings him closer!" They looked over the rail to see it was that Luke douchebag. "I need another!"

"Vessel." He heard Buffy murmur. They didn't hear a vampire growl at noticing them.

"Tonight will be history at it's end. Yours is a glorious sacrifice. Degredation most holy." He looked around annoyed by their fear. "What? No volunteers?"

"Here's a pretty one." Darla pushed out another girl on stage.

"Cordelia." Clark whispered.

"Nooooo! AHHHHHH!" She screamed in fear at her apparent doom. But before he could, he saw Buffy throw a vampire down near Luke.

Clark laughed. "Hey man, sorry to ruin your party, but she's a minor. No nibbles on the neck 'till she's 18." He quipped, while Buffy laughed next to him.

"You two!" Luke shouted in recognition.

"You didn't think we'd miss this?" Buffy asked darkly. "Did you?"

He smiled with sick glee. "I hoped you'd come."

"Be right down." Buffy turned and flipped down onto a pool table gracefully, while Clark hopped the rail and landed next to the table, creating two feet-shaped craters in the cement floor. A vampire screamed and ran at them, but Clark grabbed his neck and held him in midair just as Buffy rolled off the table and shoved the pool que into the vampire's chest. Clark tossed the impaled vampire on the ground like a ragdoll. The crowd in the club all 'oooh-ed' and 'woah-ed' at their display. "Okay Vessel boy. You want blood?"

"I want yours. And you boy, I'm gonna enjoy grinding you into paste."

Clark nodded. "You like your hobbies, I like mine. I don't judge. How about you Buff'?"

"Works for me." She ran at Luke, jumped onto the stage and kicked him in the face sending him stumbling back into chairs and boxes. He got up and growled at her before taking a swing, which she ducked under. He took another swing at her, which she grabbed and used as leverage for three powerful roundhouse kicks to his gut, before he pulled back. She pulled out her stake and tried to stab him, but he grabbed her wrist and squeezed it painfully, making her drop it. She aimed high for his head with another punch, but he grabbed that one too. With both arms trapped, she could do nothing as he threw her into several boxes.

With Clark, things were going better. All of the remaining vampires jumped him, trying to tear him apart, but he spun around at super speed, sending them flying. One stubborn vampire held onto his neck, but he grabbed it and slammed it to the ground. With one hand holding it by the neck, he drove his other hand through it's chest, dusting it. Two ran at him, one aiming high and one aiming low, he focused on the one aiming low and clotheslined it, then grabbed it by the wrist and threw it at the wall, breaking through the wall altogether. The other faced Clark, but he kicked it, knocking it into another vampire. Thing were going pretty well, but at soon as he thought that, everything went to hell. Xander, who was with Giles and Willow in trying to sneak everybody out, was grabbed from behind. Buffy threw a high hat from the drum set and hit the vampire in the head, but with her distracted, Luke took advantage of the situation and grabbed Buffy from behind in a rib-crushing bear hug. Along with that, Xander was hesitating to kill the undead Jesse, the latter holding Cordelia down, ready to feed. And finally, Darla tackled Giles when he moved to open another door. He wanted to help, but he was forced to one knee with the constant bites and scratches from the vampires-they were really starting to hurt! Clark was really starting to hat vampires.

Buffy was struggling in Luke's grip, not knowing what else to do. Suddenly she had a great idea: she feined passing out and stopped struggling, Luke taking it as a sign to feed, but when he went for her neck, she suddenly whipped her head back, hitting him with a reverse-headbutt. He was sent tumbling back as she picked up and music stand.

"You forget, metal can't hurt me." He said smugly

"There's something you forgot about too: sunrise." She hurled the stand a the window shattering it. Luke hid behind his hands to block out the pains best he could, only to found out it was only a light from the alley. In his confusion, Buffy grabbed her stake and stabbed Luke through the chest. "It's in about nine hours, moron." Luke stumbled and fell off of the stage and he squirmed around on the ground before durning to dust. The two vampires that grabbed Xander looked at her in shock before running out of the back door. Clark, who finished dusting all of the other vampires ran after them and appeared in front of them, grabbed them, and ran back in with his hands around their throats. He didn't notice a figure hiding behind a dumpster, watching the events take place.

"They actually did it, I'll be damned." Angel remarked, shocked, before he too, left the alley.

In the Bronze everyone was gathering around, still on edge in case they didn't stop the Harvest.

"I take it it's over?"

"Did we win?"

"Well, we averted the apocalypse. I'll give us points for that."

"One thing's for sure. Nothing's ever gonna be the same."

Giles turned to Clark who looked bigger and more powerful than he did already. "If I may ask, how do you have all of that power?"

Clark turned to Giles and put his hand on his shoulder. "Maybe tomorrow Giles. I'll explain what I know, but I really don't completely know either. Besides, I think I can speak for everyone when I say the only thing I wanna do right now is sleep." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and began walking away. Xander smiled and turned to Willow.

"Will, did I tell you about Clark tanking a swarm of vampires?"

She smiled too. "No I don't think so." Giles sighed, tiredly and gave a small smile.

Buffy and Clark looked at each other, looking into each other's eyes for a few seconds before walking after them, both smiling stupidly. _'Maybe this town isn't so bad.'_

School the next day was...confusing to say the least. Instead of everyone either afraid of them or cheering for them, they went about their regular day, without a care in the world, some not even noticing nor caring about them. Clark was standing with Xander, hearing Cordelia talk with her friend about rival gangs and forgeting everything.

"Okay, what?" Clark actually felt his brain trying to process why literally nobody remember the night except the five of them.

Buffy walks up to the two of them. "Well, what you you expecting?" They begin to walk inside from the courtyard.

"I don't know. Something. The dead rose! We at least should've had an assembly." The three met up with Willow and Giles, the latter began trying to explain the situation.

"People tend to rationalize what they can and forget what they can't."

"Believe me, I've seen it happen."

"Well, I'll never forget it. None of it." Willow said from the side.

"Good, next time you'll be prepared."

"Uh, next time?" Xander asked confused and worried

"As in another apocalypse next time?"

"Next time is why?"

"Well, we prevented the Master from freeing himself and opening the Mouth of Hell. That's not to say he's going to stop trying. I'd say the fun is just beginning."

"More vampires?" Willow asked hoping she was just hearing things.

"Not just vampires. The next threat we face might be something quite different."

"I can hardly wait." Buffy shrugged, but Clark just rolled his eyes.

"I'd enjoy a little waiting."

"We're at the centerof a mystical convergence here. We may, in fact, stand between Earth and it's total destruction."

"Well, I gotta look at the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school."

Xander remembered something. "CK, you never did tell us what you are."

Clark smirked. "Oh yeah." He turns to Giles with a mischevious look in his eyes. "I'm an alien from a race unknown to mankind, or even myself." The rest of their eyes widened as Clark casually answered one of the most sought after questions of all mankind then strolled away to his first peiod class. Xander was the first to recover and he ran after Clark with a huge smile. "No way! No freakin' way!"

Willow and Buffy recovered soon afterwards. Buffy smiled and said, "Well it's always good to have a partner in crime."

Willow was on the same track mind. "You guys can pull sooo many pranks." They caught up to Clark and Xander, who was babbling nonstop while Clark tried to answer what he could.

Giles was still hanging back, watching the teenagers devising plans to get kicked out.

"The world is doomed." He sighed and walked back to his library.

 **And with that, the tale of our great heroes has begun, their story will go on to be the stuff of legends. Thanks for reading and remember to review. See ya in the next update!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, I'm back with the next chapter! I want to clarify that I won't be doing every episode of Buffy, but instead I'll replace it with episode themes from Smallville. Those episodes will be very different, obviously, but I'm gonna be using the episodes with the best themes, character archs or story archs. As for the pairing, it's been decided: Buffy is the winner (though most of you probably knew that). Sorry for those that voted for someone else. I kinda knew she would be the winner too, hence the little moments between them in the past chapter. I want to thank Coolrod, a guest, for his criticisms, and now that I go back and read the chapters, I saw what you were saying. I guess I was trying to stick really close with the story for the first two episodes to kinda cement the characters-also I really didn't want to screw up the characters. I'll also really work on making them longer and giving Clark a more prominent role. So, without further adu, let's get to the chapter!**

Clark often wondered how he gets into these messes, all he wants to do is good deeds and help people. Why do bad things happen to good people? Had this been the universe, laughing at him for his suffering, he feels like it is. 'What is this pure torture,' You ask? It's a 5'11", brown-haired, chatter-box named Alexander Harris, or Xander. He and Xander have grown to be pretty close friends since the Harvest, yet friendship doesn't prevent Xand from talking Clark's ear off.

"C'mon Clark."

"No."

"C'mon Clark!"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Why would I ask Buffy out?"

"Duh, because you like her!"

"That's like me saying you're gonna date Cordelia."

"Psh! Like that'll ever happen!"

"That's what I mean." Even though he said this, he couldn't help but think about how it would go if he did ask Buffy out. 'Yeah, right. Why the hell would she say yes?'

They both heard a voice from around the corner. "Was he never an actual teenager? I feel like he was born a stuffy British guy."

They walked around the corner and saw Buffy ranting to Willow, swallowing hard at the cheerleader outfit. Xander saw his expression and smirked. "Buffy! Willow!"

"Hey Xander." Willow greeted giddily. Buffy on the other hand seemed annoyed, probably at Giles. She seems to always be annoyed at Giles.

"Hey Buff, I see you're trying out for the cheerleading squad. What do you think CK?" Xander turned to Clark and smiled, while he glared at Xander.

Buffy turned to Clark waiting for his answer. "I-I, uh, think it's really cool."

Buffy laughed. "Well if Clark thinks it's cool, it confirms that Giles is paranoid."

Xander and Willow laughed with her while Clark looked confused. Xander said while giggling. "Hey, maybe Giles will change his mind if he hears it from Clark."

Clark was crazy confused. "I don't get it. Why is me saying it's cool so funny?" They all erupted in even more laughter. The three walked ahead while Clark stood back confused. Clark blinked and walked after them. "Xander, I really don't get what's so funny."

"Well, you're tied with Giles for most paranoid of the group. Dude, you purposely miss test questions to keep a straight 'B' grade."

"I'm just drawing less attention to myself."

"Right there! See, everything that you do is for keeping your secret safe. You won't do sports to hide your secret. Buffy's at least doing cheerleading."

Clark stopped and thought about it while the others walked into the gym. "Huh, good to know." He followed them in.

The gym was full of girls, all stretching and warming up to music that failed in pumping him up, but succeeded in making him wanna tear his eardrums out.

"I mean seriously, we haven't seen a vampire in over a week." Buffy still seemed upset about Giles.

"Don't worry Buffy, we're behind you."

Xander taps Clark's shoulder. "Seriously CK, I don't get why so many people scoff at things like school spirit, but look at these girls giving their all like this."

"Yeah Xander, God bless America." Clark said uncaringly. They saw one girl doing a full front split, using two chairs as stands.

"Ooooh, stretchy." The girls looked at Xander, while Clark couldn't help, but stare at the girl-hey he's still a warm-blooded male. And she is stretchy. "Where was I?"

"You were pretending that watching scantily clad girls in revealing positions was a spiritual experience."

"Who said I was pretending?" He turned and lifted his hand with a smile. "C'mon Clark, high five me."

Clark rolled his eyes, but gave in and smiled, high fiving Xander. Xander had a look like he remembered something. He turned around and faced Buffy. "Oh, I almost forgot, here's a good luck charm, for tryouts." Willow gained a worried look on her face when Buffy took the bracelet Xander gave her.

"What's this?"

"What's that?" Willow's hurt look hit him full force, and it wasn't even directed at him.

"Aww, how sweet. Yours...always." The latter sentence was inscribed onto the bracelet. Clark felt a flicker of jealousy, but hid it better than Willow did, at least he hoped he did.

Xander looked flustered when explaining it. "I-it, uh, came that way. All of them did." He elbowed Xander in the ribs, only enough to hurt him. He jumped and turned to Clark, who was glaring at him, with Xander sheepishly smiling back.

"Look at that Amber." He saw Cordelia, in a skimpy outfit as well, looking disgusted at a girl in a cheerleading uniform lift her leg past her head. "Who does she think she is? A Laker girl?"

"I'd say so." Xander whispered to him.

"Agreed." He whispered back.

"I heard she turned them down." Willow answered Cordelia in a way he's pretty sure is petty.

Cordelia turned and saw Clark, her smile going a bit predatory. "Hey Clark, glad to see you here."

He didn't know what to do so he just pt his handa behind his back and said, "Yeah, I'm, uh, glad to be here."

Interrupting whatever she was gonna say next, and saving Clark's life, the coach interrupted. "Okay everyone! Let's begin with..." She looked at her list. "Amber Grove. If you're not auditioning, move off the floor."

He grabbed Xander's shoulder. "And that's our cue. Good luck Buffy." He and Xander walked off the floor. Buffy, for some reason, felt better at hearing that.

Clark and Xander just watch-Xander drooling a bit-as Amber does flips and twirls and absolutely decimate any possibilites of her not being a member of the squad. Clark grew alarmed as she began smoking.

"She's on fire!" He heard Willow scream and true to that, the arms caught ablaze. He saw Buffy turn and run for something, but he focused solely on running to help the girl. He tried to put it out by hand, but instead of him putting it out, he severly burned his hands and it grew, if anything. Buffy ran by him with a banner, tackling Amber to the ground and putting out the flames. He heard Buffy whispering things to calm the poor girl down, but it was drowned out in his confusion at seeing his burned hands still not healing over.

"I've been slaying vampires for over a year now, and I've seen some pretty cringeworthy things, but I've never seen someone's hands getting toasted."

"I imagine not." Giles walked out of the back room, book in hand.

"So, this isn't a vampire problem."

"If it was a vampire problem, I would've put out that fire. But I didn't, it actually hurt me. I'm sure you think I'm overreacting, but I'm supposed to be invulnerable to this stuff."

"So, it is kinda funky, right?"

"Right. Spontaneous human combustion is rare and scientifically unexplainable, but there have been cases for hundreds of years. Usually all that's left is ashes."

"That's all that would've been left if it weren't for Buffy."

"So we have no idea what caused this. That's a comfort."

"Whatever it is, or whoever caused it, it's probably crazy powerful." Clark shuddered at the thought.

"There's the thrill that comes with living on the Hellmouth. There's a veritable cornucopia of fiends and devils and ghouls to-"

"Not a comfort G." Clark cut in with an eye roll.

"Well, pardon me for finding the glass half full."

"Any common denominators in spontaneous combustion?"

"Rage, in most cases the person combusting was terribly angry or upset."

"So maybe Amber's got this power to magically set herself on fire. It's like the Human Torch, only...it hurts."

"Xander?"

"Sup CK?"

"Stop talking."

"Gotcha."

"I'm gonna go talk to Amber, see if she's had any colorful episodes before."

"That means illegally hacking into the school's computer system. At last. Something I can do."

"I'll ask around about her."

"I can check the gym, see if anything was set up or if the pom-poms were sabotaged."

"You guys don't have to get involved." Buffy stopped them in their tracks.

"What do you mean? We're a team. Aren't we a team?"

"Yeah, your the Slayer and we're like the Slayerettes."

"What about me?"

"You can be the Uber-Slayer."

"Works for me."

"I just don't like putting you guys in danger."

"Well, I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide 'till it goes away."

"You forgot pee your pants Xan'. Look, Buffy, we get that you wanna keep us sheltered from your life of slaying, but we're choosing to help, we're not forced." Clark finished with a soft smile.

She relented at his smile. She does that a lot when she sees that smile. "O-okay, just walk softly, at least until we get more. I mean, what if Amber's been causing this problem herself?"

"Well we have to determine who or what did and deal with it accordingly."

"Fine, let's go. But be careful where you guys are stepping." Buffy, Xander and Willow stepped out, while Clark remained.

"Giles." He looked up at Clark. "Any luck?" After talking about his place of origin to Giles, Clark asked the librarian if he could look into any word of aliens or extra-dimentional beings among the Watcher or other supernatural communities. So far, there has been no luck, but Giles has gleefully continued his search. When Clark asked about why he was so giddy, he simply responded with 'To think that there is a whole race of beings like you that haven't been explored as of yet. The mystery is both driving me mad and filling me with glee.'

Giles looked at him with a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry Clark, but the only beings I've found that relate to your abilities are the Old Ones, and considering your good heart and the fact that they faded away millenias ago, it would be impossible for you to be an Old One."

"Well, thanks for trying Giles, I understand." He turned to leave, but Giles gripped his shoulder.

"Clark, if you ever are feeling...distressed about your origin, you can always talk to me. I hope you know that."

Clark smiled. "Of course Giles. And...thanks." He walked out of the library, leaving Giles to sigh and return to his work.

Clark took time to just walk through Sunnydale, missing the quiet of Smallville and the solidarity of the farm. He wasn't sure what he was trying to do, but he just...needed time. Time away from school, away from the drama and the double standards of high school life. He wasn't planning on fighting any vampires, but he heard a woman in a alleyway screaming for her life. Clark ran to the screams and saw a vampire in the dark of the alleyway holding the woman by the neck, about to feed. He ran over and tackled the vampire away, yelling at the woman to run. Once she was gone, he lifted the vampire with one arm.

"You aren't a very bright one, are you? You really attacked someone while the sun was still up? Man they don't make vampires like they used to." The vampire punched Clark as hard as he could, but instead of it going through his head, like expected, Clark didn't even flinch. The vampire held his hand in pain and looked at Clark with shock and terror.

"What are you?" Clark held the vampire in open sunlight and watched as it burned to ashes.

"Buddy, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." He sat down in the alley, suddenly not feeling in the mood for walking anymore. He began thinking again and it took him to a bad place. 'I mean seriously, what's more infamously known to be more terrifying? Aliens over vampires any day of the week.' He did this a lot back on the farm, calling himself a freak and trapping himself in his own mind, never telling anyone about it, of course. With each day, his insecurities about his heritage rise more and more, but instead of healthily talking about these insecurities, he's bottled them up. His eyes shut tight and tried to control himself. When he gets in this state, he found that his powers fluctuate to both extremes, between increasing tenfold and disappearing entirely. He finally settled his breathing and controlled himself, shakily standing up and shaking his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. With a deep breath, he walked out of the alley and sped home.

Clark made it to school, still reeling from the incident in the alley. He was trudging through the courtyard, blankly staring ahead and fiddling with the straps on his backpack. He saw the group standing next to a large crowd of girls, presumably looking at the cheerleading list. One of the girls, Andy walked away, looking like she was about to cry.

"What did you do Xander?"

"Xander here told Amy that she was 3rd alternate." Willow said frustrated.

"Really? That's great! Right? Um, right?" Clark grew more sheepish as Willow's unamused look turned towards him.

"Ugh, boys! Making alternate isn't making the team, they're just replacements if something happens to the ones that did make the team."

"Oh."

"Excuse me." Buffy walked away without another word. Clark watched her depart, hearing Xander next to him.

"I am Xander, king of cretins. May all lesser cretins bow down before me."

"Don't worry Xan, I'm right there with you." Clark sighed seeing her talk with Amy before she too was left in the dust by Amy. "Hey, guys, I'm gonna head to the library. I'll, uh...see you guys later."

"Hold up Clark. Where were you yesterday? We said we were gonna meet at the Bronze. I mean, I'm a pretty flaky guy, but at least I call ahead."

"So-sorry. I just had something...personal to deal with. I'll see you guys later." He walked away not seeing the look shared between Xander and Willow.

"We're gonna follow him right?" Xander held a mishievous look in his eyes, while Willow looked more concerned.

"Definitely."

Clark slowly walked into the library, his eyes darting around for any sign of Giles. He was able to hell he was present recently, but he wasn't sure if he was still in the library. "Giles?" The man in question suddenly popped out from the back room.

"Yes Clark, what did you need?"

Clark's eyes darted around before firmly settling on a random spot in the floor. "I was, uh, wondering if that offer for talking to you was still on the table?"

"Of course Clark. It will always be available." His lips twitched upward.

Clark took a deep breath. It was now or nothing. "For a while, ever since I found out about where I came from, I've been having these...I don't know what to describe them. They're like panic attacks, but I never feel in danger, just as if all I've ever known is a lie. I mean, how would you feel knowing that you were raised to believe you were just like everyone else, only to find out that you were the exact opposite. That you are entirely and completely alone on this planet. I'm getting stronger and faster with each day, what if my powers expand to the point where I could actually touch somebody without the risk of killing them? What happens if I just keep developing more and more powers until I'm at the point where not even my closest friends could relate to me? Who am I then?" Giles stayed quiet throughout the whole rant.

"Then? Then, you are Clark Kent. No matter how strong you get, it will never change who you are. You are possibly one of the most morally scrupulous people I know, meaning that no matter what you turn into, you will alway stay true to how you were raised to be. Clark, we may not be your race, but I consider Earth to be just as much your home as it is mine. Always keep in mind that you will never be alone." Clark looked up to mett Giles eyes. He was at the point of nearly bursting into tears. Clark was about to respond back to Giles, but the bell rung. "Have a good day Clark." Giles smiled and returned to the backroom.

Clark was leaving the library when a blur of auburn hair crashed into him wrapping it's/her arms around him. The blur, now identified as Willow just whispered "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Xander, who appeared out of nowhere place his arms on Clark's shoulders saying, "I didn't know you felt that way CK. Hey man, if you ever need some support, the Xan Man's your go to guy."

"Thanks guys, but I think I'll be alright for now. Sorry for dipping yesterday Xander, just some emotional stuff to deal with."

"Trust me man, it's all good."

"No, really, let's go to the Bronze tonight. This time, I'll be there." Clark smiled but heard the tardy bell ring, making all three stiffen up. "Talk more after class?"

"Yea."

"Yup." They all went to their separate classes.

The next day, Willow, Xander, and Clark were talking about Xan's dating life, or lack of one.

"Yeah, you don't have to drive it through my head like a railroad spike." He said refering to when Willow compared Cordelia dazedly ignoring him and Buffy not noticing him to a chewed up pen. "I'm gonna take your advice and not beat around the bush." Clark's eyes widened slightly before returning to regular size. He didn't know Xander was actually gonna ask Buffy out, not like he had any right to force him not to, even if he really wanted to.

"Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe you should beat around the bush even more." He saw her 'subtle' fishing line, hoping Xander would take a bite. 'Man, that even sounds bad in my head.' He'd been suspecting her feelings for Xander, but this just confirmed it.

"Nah, I gotta be a man and ask her out. You know, I gotta stop giving her I.D. bracelets, dropping subtle innuendos...taking polaroids from outside her window thatlastpartistrulyajokebecausehereshecomes." Clark took a moment to process it before turning to Xander.

"What the hell-?"

"Into battle I go." He grabbed Willow's shoulder. "Would you ask her out for me?! No, man, me battle. Buffy," She seemed distracted with seeing Cordelia fumble around with a locker. "would you like to, uh-" He was cut off by Buffy. Ouch.

"Is that even Cordelia's locker?" Huh, he didn't notice it before, that's not even close to her locker.

Xander looked confused, though. "What? Um, I don't know. Would you like to accompany me on Friday night-." Ouch. Again.

"I have to, um...we can make this up later. You don't mind do you?" As she walked away, Xander made the sounds of a bomb dropping.

"It was a lot lounder than that Xander. Deafening even." Xander looked at him and shrugged.

Clark went after Cordelia too, noticing something was up at the fact that she didn't insult Xander or hit on him at all the entire morning. She was currently in Drivers Ed. and had just gotten into the car, from what Clark saw. Suddenly, without warning, the car reversed right into a couple signs, completely toppling them. Then, she drove wildly around the course, crashing through other signs and almost hitting a few people. By this point, Clark definitely knew something was up and he sped up to the tail of the car just as it was about to crash through a fence. He grabbed a hold of the car and stopped it in it's tracks, then sped away before anyone could see his feat. He watched from behind a school bus as a crowd gathered and the passengers stumbled out of the car, Cordelia looking the most dazed.

Buffy went to check on Cordelia and ask what happened when she suddenly toppled to the ground screaming. "Cordelia. Cordelia! What's wrong?!" She holds the screaming girls arms to calm her down, but when she turned to Buffy, the vampire slayer gasped at what she saw.

"Oh-ohmygod! I can't see anything." True to her word, her eyes were blank, without retinas nor pupils. "What's happening? I can't see anything."

"It's gonna be okay Cordelia. Come on, I'm gonna take you to the nurse." She hefted Cordelia up from the ground and held her up by her shoulder. She looked around and saw Clark behind a bus. He quirked his head and she mouther 'library'. He understood and went to get Xander and Willow.

"Wichcraft. Blinding your enemies to disorient and disable them is a classic."

"First vampires, now witches."

"Living the dream Xan." Clark chuckled without humor.

"Why would someone want to harm Cordelia?"

"Maybe they met her? Did I say that?" Willow said in a suprisingly snarky attitude.

"And setting Amber ablaze?"

"There has to be a common link between the two." Clark said deep in thought.

"They're both cheerleaders."

"Someone doesn't like...cheerleading?"

"Or likes it too much."

"Amy." Willow understood.

"Amy." Buffy confirmed.

"So you guys are leaning towards Amy."

"I guess it's Amy." Clark said with a shrug.

"She's desparate to get on the team. I've got this feeling she'd do anything to make her mom's dream come true."

"L-let me make sure I have this right: this witch is casting horrible and disfiguring spells, so that she could become a cheerleader?"

"I think you're underestimating the amount of pressure a parent could lay on you. You're not a picture-perfect carbon-copy, they tend to wig."

"Cheerleading was kinda her mom's last hurrah."

"We still have to stop Amy. We have to grab her and-"

"I think we should make sure she's a witch before we arouse her suspisions because...she's capable of some pretty powerful things."

"Okay, okay, you're in high school, you're desperate to make the team and please your mom, so you turn to witchcraft. What's the first thing you're gonna do?"

"Check out the books on witchcraft." Buffy and Willow moved to the computer, while Xander looked ready to argue. Giles looked indifferent and Clark looked very lost in thought.

"No! No, that would be the last thing you would do, you don't wanna leave a paper trail. Forget that."

Willow ignored him. "It'll just take a minute."

"We don't have a minute!" Xander burst out, standing up rapidly.

"Xander! What's your damage?" Clark asked jostled out of his thoughts.

"Cheerleaders are in danger! Buffy's in danger! You were the first alternate. You're on the team now that Cordelia's could be next, we gotta get you to a safe house." he tried pulling her away, but she pulled back.

"Xander."

He looked sheepish. "Yea?"

"Witches: Historic Roots to Modern Practice. Checked out by Alexander Harris."

"The Pagan Rights. Also checked out by Alexan-"

"Alright, alright. It's not what you think."

"What you like to look at the kinda nude engravings?" Clark joked.

"Well, uh, I guess it is what you think."

"That's kinda messed up." Clark said with a grossed-out look.

"If you're all quite finished, we need to find a conclusive test." Giles, if possible, was buried in even more books than before. "There maybe something in here." He said, flipping through an old-looking book. "Yes, this should do it. You'll need some of her hair. A little quicksilver. And...some aquafortis."

"That's just mercury and nitric acid. You can get that in the science lab."

Clark thought back. "I'm not sure there's nitric acid open in the lab. If I had the ingredients I could whip some up really quick."

Giles kept reading. "Combine ingredients and apply to witch. If cast within 48 hours, said witch's skin will turn blue. Hmm." He shut the book. "Oh, and you'll need some Eye of Newt."

The group of four were in science class doing a standard frog dissection, while also creating the brew to confirm Amy's spellcasting. While the professor was droning on about the dissection, Clark was speeding up a chemical reaction between water and nitrogen dioxygen. He took notice of Xander's freaking out at cutting the eyeball out of the frog while still focusing on the reaction and using his expansive knowledge of chemistry to his benefit. He sighed deeply as he saw the mini-reaction take place.

"Nitric acid is done."

Willow looked wide eyed. "H-how did you force a chemical reaction in the span of 10 minutes?"

"Superspeed, concentration, and dumb luck. Don't ask."

Willow shook her head and took the beaker. "Thanks Clark, I guess. So, nitric acid: check. Mercury:" She poured a bit of mercury in the beaker. "Check. And the eye..." Xander was still trying to work up the nerve to cut the eye out of the frog.

He frustratedly put the tweezers and the frog on the table. "I can't."

Willow yanked the eye out and dropped it in the beaker. "...Check."

"Now," Clark leaned back in his stool. "I guess all we have to do is wait for Buffy to get the hair." They turned and saw Buffy awkwardly trying to create an excuse to talk to Amy. When that failed, she pretended to drop her pencil and when into Amy's bag to grab the hair. Buffy stood up, tensly smiled to Amy, and returned to her friends. When Buffy handed it to Willow, she returned to her seat next to Clark, to keep up the act of working lab partners. Every now and then, Amy suspiciously looked back at the four of them and they put forced smiles on their faces.

"Wave hi to the nice little witch." Xander remimded them. As if she heard him, she turned around and looked right at Xander. When she looked away, Willow finished the mix and moved it to a smaller tube.

"All set." She confirmed and handed it up to Buffy. "Do you have a plan?"

"Spill it on her, try to make it look natural." She nervously got up again and moved to Amy.

"I can think of four other ways to get it on her without making a scene. But I think I want to sit back and watch the show." Buffy turned and playfully glared and Clark, the small smile giving it away. He smiled back and nodded his head to move to Amy. Everything looked like it went well, there was confirmation that Amy's a witch and it looks like nobody really noticed, but at the very moment, everybody was freaking out and surrounding a girl. Seeing her, it looked like her mouth dissappeared entirely.

"Did you see? Amy was as freaked out at the rest of us."

"She didn't do it."

"The test was positive. She's our Sabrina."

"What if it was accidental. What if she has the powers of a witch, but can't control it."

"Well, should we talk to her?"

"Maybe we should talk to her mother. If she knows what she's created..." Clark agreed with her, but an ominous feeling stirred around in his gut, a sense of danger to come.

That night he had a heavy vision-there was a soft white glow, almost blurry, but still visible. He was standing in a shop, he didn't know where, but it felt familiar. There were a bunch of trinkets on all the shelves, some of which looked silly. He recognized some people around him, like Giles, Buffy, Willow and Xander, but he also saw people he didn't know, like a shy looking blonde girl locking arms with Willow, a bleach-haired, Billy Idol looking guy in the corner, and a blonde girl standing behind the counter. Everybody looked older, and more importantly, looked happy. He turned and saw Buffy looking at him, a look he couldn't explain, a look as if the world was perfect. Then the white glow turned to a dark tint, replacing his wide smile, his face grew confused as he looked away from Buffy to see everybody gone. When he turned back, Buffy disappeared as well, leaving him alone. All of the trinkets on the shelves have either wasted or rusted away, small bits of rubble lied in small piles here and there, and the windows were all boarded up. He suddenly felt heavy, like weights were forcing him to the ground, and sunk to his knees. His hands soon touched the ground too, and no matter how hard he pushed against the weight, he couldn't move from the ground.

An alarm was set off in the morning, snapping Clark to shoot up and smash his clock into small bits. He wasn't laughing or brooding, he was just confused at what the whole dream was. He popped up from his bedside and ran around his room, getting his clothes and cleaning his room. He chuckled when he stopped himself from speeding out of the door, in a habit of doing his farm chores. Jonathan saw him from the kitchen and chuckled.

"Morning, Clark."

Clark smiled back. "Morning Dad. Hey, I, uh, broke another clock." He rubbed the back of his head as he opened the fridge and grabbed the bottle of juice.

Jonathan laughed again and pat his son's shoulder. "We're gonna be broke from alarm clocks alone." Clark smirked and started drinking from the bottle when Martha walked in.

"Clark! How many times am I gonna say it? No more drinking from the bottle."

"What? There was practicslly no more juice left in the bottle."

Martha smiled. "That's what you said the day after I got a new bottle. Alright, get out of here, school's gonna start soon." Clark's eyes widened and he hurriedly hugged his mom and dad.

"See ya guys! Have a good day!" He shouted and sped to school.

"Ellen Ripley!"

"Sarah Conner!"

"Ripley!"

"Conner!"

"What are you two arguing about?" Willow asked as she approached the two conflicting teenagers.

"Hey Willow." Clark greeted as the three moved to the gym, where they knew Buffy would be.

"This chump thinks that Sarah Conner could beat Ellen Ripley in a fight to the death."

"Yeah, I do, because Sarah Conner is the 'chosen one' who fought legions of advanced killer AI's. Ellen Ripley fought a single alien"

"Yeah a single near-unkillable alien who was able to create more of it's kind in minutes."

"All it took was fire to scare it away. It's nearly impossible to completely wipe out an AI, which means it could constantly create more robots until every human on planet earth is dead."

"Well Willow, what do you think?"

"I think both women are legends, but it would obviously be Sarah Conner. Sorry Xander."

Xander pouted when they until they all reached the gym, then they heard music come from inside and checked it out. They saw the cheerleaders practiced well in synch. When Clark saw Buffy dancing with her short skirt, he felt heat building up in the back of his eyes, but it all dissipated when she stepped on another girl's foot. Xander winced. "Dang, she's clumsy. Still hot, but clumsy." Mirroring his look, Clark saw the hurt and slightly jealous look in Willow's eyes. Buffy saw them and shouted their names, jumping for joy.

"Willow! Xander! Clark! My friends are here! I love my buds! Hi! Hi...oh." She leaped into position to the stunned and puzzled look on her friends' faces.

"Is it me or is Buffy a bit looped?"

"Definitely not you." Clark said, still shocked.

"We better get her out of there." Buffy was still going a bit crazy

"Yeah, before she..." The three watched as Buffy accidently threw a girl with her slayer strength. "...hurts someone." The three of them all rush to see if the girl was okay. Buffy came over too.

"Did I do that?" The girl pushes Buffy away, so Clark catches her.

"You are so out of here!"

"It's not her fault." Willow defended.

"She's on medication." Xander lies.

As Buffy turned to Xander questioningly, still held firm in Clark's arms, the hurt cheerleader started up again.

"Obviously not enough. Who's our next alternate?" She turned and saw Amy. "Oh, Amy, you just made cheerleader."

Buffy looked incredulous. "No, no, no! You don't want her she's a wi-" Clark covers her mouth and begins moving her away from the gym.

"Don't worry, it was a smart choice." He gave her his best farmboy smile. She blushed. _'Never fails to work on California girls.'_ Buffy was struggling against him, but he managed to stay firm and left the gym.

Outside of the gym, Buffy seemed to grow even more loopy. "But she's a witchy!"

Willow sighed. "Buffy."

"I just got kicked off the team didn't I?"

Clark also sighed, still holding onto Buffy. "Nah, I think you'll be okay. It wasn't your fault."

She smiled goofily and leaned back against Clark, smiling up at him. "Of course you think so, cause you're my friend. You're my Clark-shaped friend. Do you have any idea why I love you so, Clarkie?" Clark swallowed deeply, but Willow saved him from anything else.

"We gotta get her to a-"

"No, no, we're doing CK a favor. Let her speak."

"Let me tell you." They stopped as Buffy turned and put her hand on Clark's cheek. Clark stood up straight, feeling that heat again. "You're not like any guy I've met. You are totally alien. That's why he's so much different than these lame high school guys." Clark's face went from embarrassed to depressed in an instant. "I mean any other guy would be mean and selfish and constantly try to hit on-woah." Buffy started stumbling and grabbed her head. "I-I don't feel so good."

"Buffy?!" Willow grew alarmed when she fainted in Clark's arms.

"We've gotta get her to a hospital!" Willow was going hysterical.

"What are they gonna do?" Clark knew what they were capable of, and it wasn't magic.

"Nothing. This is a Bloodstone Vengeance Spell. Hits the body hard like a quart of alchohol and then it eradicates the immune system."

"Vengeance spell, like she's trying to get back at Buffy?"

"She knows I know she's a witch."

"The others she wanted out of the running. With you, she has intents to..."

"Kill." Buffy finished with a icy look.

"How much time do we have?"

"O-oh, I'm sure, uh-"

"Don't give us any crap Giles." Clark warned

"Please." Buffy pleaded.

He gave in at her look. "A couple hours. Three at the most."

"Just tell me how to reverse this. I'll get it done." Clark looked angry, crossing his arms over his chest, making him loom over the others even more.

"I've been, uh, researching this and we can reverse all the spells if we..." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "...get ahold of Amy's spellbook."

"And if we can't get ahold of it." Willow seemed afraid of what the answer would be.

"Well the other way is to cut the witches head off."

"Show of hands?"

As a last ditch effort, Buffy tries to defend Amy. "It's not Amy's fault. She only became a witch to survive her mother."

"Buffy, it doesn't matter why. The only thing that does matter is saving you." Clark looked at Buffy, one of their signature 'looks' passing through them.

"Giles, where would she cast these spells?"

"Well, she would need a sacred space. A pentagram...a large pot."

"Her home. Okay, help me up." Xander and Willow helped Buffy up while Clark moved towards the door. "We'll just go to her house and get her book."

"We'll go with you." Willow insisted.

"No, you guys stay here and keep an eye on Amy."

"And keep her away from the science lab, we'll need it to cast our counter spells."

"You already know I'm coming and you know you couldn't stop me anyway. This time, I'm taking point. You're weaker and I would be better suited to take the front in a special case of any traps."

"Whatever Clark."

"Very well Clark, since you're so eager to go, you're carrying Buffy."

The three pulled up to Amy's house in Giles' 'vintage' car. Clark got out first and assisted Buffy from her seat.

"I'm fine Clark! I can walk." She slapped his hand away, he put his hands in the air, stepping away from her.

The walked up to the front door and Giles knocked repeatedly, with no answer. On the third knock, a woman finally appeared and opened the door. She looked jittery and paranoid, as if she was constantly being watched. "Who are you? Is there something wrong?"

"Mrs. Madison, we need to talk to you about your daughter." He said urgently. _'Smooth Giles, smooth.'_

"I'm not allowe-you're gonna have to come back later. When she attempted to slam the door shut, Clark caught it and held it without budge. He then used a fraction of his strength to push the door open, sending the woman stumbling.

"Excuse us, but we're gonna have a talk." Clark ushered Buffy and Giles inside.

"Your daughter is meddling with something very dangerous. Are you aware of that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you know only too well."

"You've got to go. She's gonna be home soon and you-"

"This girl is very sick." Giles looked angry. Like murder angry. "Now you will shut up and you will listen to me. You daughter has access to some very powerful magics and somehow your obsession with cheerleading has-"

"I don't care about cheerleading! It's not my fault she's doing stuff." Buffy looked at the fudge squares on the floor, Clark noticing it as well and compiling it onto his own file.

"As her mother, you need to assume some responsibility for her actions."

She laughed hysterically. "Yeah, well you know. Those kids today." Her loony smile dropped. "She's out of her mind. Ever since dad- her dad left, I couldn't control her."

"You're afraid of her."

"Amy?" Buffy whispered. "Are you Amy?"

Giles looked confused. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I. Could you please enlighten us?"

"She switched. She switched your bodies didn't she?"

"Oh God." Clark understood the implications. "That's why she was so obsessed with cheerleading. She wanted to relive her glory days."

"...She said I was wasting my youth. So she took it."

Giles stood in shock. "Clark. Do me a favor and search every inch of this house for the book, while we have...a talk."

"Y-yeah, sure Giles." He then walked away.

He checked around the house but there was nothing out of the usual. He then noticed stairs leading downstairs, but he never saw a basement when looking around. That means...lead. He rushed downstairs and when he saw the door, he simply twisted the knob enough for the lock to snap. He looked inside to see the lead paint walls with cauldrons and dolls and other odd objects lying around.

"Giles! Giles!." He still heard nobody coming. "GILES!" Only then did he hear rushed footsteps approaching his position. When they made it to the stairs, he explained the situation. "It's down here. I couldn't see it due to the paint walls. Forgot to mention, can't x-ray through lead." Giles nodded absentmindedly and rushed into the basement.

Amy grew more nervous as they walked further into the room. Then she panicked. "Don't! If she finds out I was in here, she'll kill me!" Giles shook off her arm. and continued with Clark. The whole room was creeping him out with all the dolls on chains and everything.

"I believe we can reverse your mother's spell." Giles soothed. "All of them in fact."

"Oh man! That's a relief!" Clark wiped imaginary sweat from his brow.

"Could you really?" She asked with real hope.

"I need to find her books. There'd be specific volumes needed for casting." Giles moved to open a chest. "Collect those dolls." Clark nodded. "And collect-"

When the chest was opened, a black cat jumped out, scaring Giles. Clark laughed. "Little jumpy there Giles?"

"It was a nice...kitty." Clark chuckled and returned to collecting the dolls. "Ah yes, this is it." Giles held up a book. "We must go urgently." The three through the house. Clark arrived first and held Buffy's face in his hands, seeing her condition to be growing worse. She looked up to Giles.

"Did you find?"

"We found. Come on Clark, we need to hurry!" Clark picked her up bridal style and ran outside.

"Where are you going?" Amy asked.

Giles replied in a rush. "We're going to school, and you're coming with us."

Giles was leading Amy through the halls with Clark carrying Buffy right behind the two. They could hear the sounds of the basketball game blasting through the halls, most likely where Amy was occupied. They burst into the lab and Clark ran through, brushing the objects off of a lab table and setting Buffy on top of it. He stepped back as Giles took off his jacket and folded it up under her head as a makeshift pillow.

"Just hang on Buffy." Clark held her hand. "I promise, you'll be okay."

The two protectors of Sunnydale moved to research the cures for all of Mrs. Madison's spells when Amy asked. "Will she be alright?"

"She only has a few minutes at best." Giles replied solemnly.

Clark moved back to Buffy as Giles worked to counter the spells, chanting and adding ingredients all the way. Suddenly the lights went out and Clark stood up straight looking at the door. The sense of foreboding came back full force as he kept staring at the door, his hand never leaving Buffy's.

"She's coming." Amy whispered.

"Giles! Hurry!" Clark took charge of the situation. "Finish what you were doing."

He continued his chant. "Release the unworthy! Take my enegy and be sated!" He stuck his hands in the makeshift cauldron. The door began jiggling as someone tried to get in, presumably Mrs. M. Clark walked away from the lab table and prepared himself in front of the door. The door was chipping away as The witch began chopping away at the door.

"Release!" Giles called. Mrs. M walked through the whole she made, aiming for Buffy, but Clark stepped in the way.

"Release!" She chopped at Clark, but the blade shattered on his chest, next thing she knew, she was sent flying into a wall. She looked up with evil in her eyes. She made gestures at Clark that were reminiscent of a cat swiping the air. Large and bloody cuts appeared all over Clark's body, making him scream in pain and lower to a knee.

"RELEASE!" Just as she was about to continue, the spell broke. All at once, The two that had originally body-switched revert to their actual bodies and Buffy shot up healthy as could be.

Amy, now in her original body, looked around in shock. "Buffy?"

Buffy walked foward, smiling. "Amy?" But she was caught off guard as Mrs. M tackled her to the ground. As Giles tried to intervene, he was cut off when the witch pushed a table into him, knocking him down. She stood up straight, seeing her daughter and looking at her with utter disdain.

"You. You little brat."

"Mom, please." Amy pleaded. Just in case, she raised her fists. Mrs. M swiped her hands, making Amy stumble and look up in fear.

"How dare you raise your hand to your mother? I gave you birth. I gave you life so you could drage the carcass around and call it living? You've never been anything but trouble. I'm gonna put you where you can't make trouble again." As she was speaking, Buffy stood up behind her.

"Guess what?" She whipped around, facing Buffy. "I feel better." Buffy uppercut her in the jaw, sending the older witch flying into a shelf. She immediately got up though.

"That body was mine." She hissed at Buffy.

"Oh grow up!" In a rage, Mrs. Madison waved her hand out, sending Buffy into a wall. She shot up as well, rolling the pain off her shoulders.

"I shall look upon my enemy." Her eyes were now completely black. "I shall look upon her and the dark place will have her soul. Her hands lifted into the air and when she was about to chant her spell, Clark ran up and punched her into a wall, making the spell malfunction and reflect unto her instead. She screamed in agony as she was sent to the 'dark place'.

Everything went quiet, the three teenagers just stood there. Giles woke up and disturbed the silence. "That was, um...interesting." Buffy held out her hand for Giles to take and she lifted him to his feet.

"You guys okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine." Amy answered with a smile.

"I'm not." Clark answered with a grunt, his shirt in shreds. Buffy was staring for a few seconds _'Everything that comes in packs of six are the best'_ She was shook out of her thoughts as Giles began speaking.

"I assume all the spells have been reversed. It was my first casting, so... I may have got it wrong."

"You saved my life." Buffy insisted. "You are a God.

"I didn't think you'd pull it off." Suddenly she was tackled by...Xander?

"I got her! I got her! Cut her head off!"

"Xander what are you doing?"

"Saving you."

"You're late genius." Clark said dryly.

"But she's evil." Xander didn't understand.

Giles explained. "It wasn't exactly her."

Xander turned to Amy. "I was my mom." She finished.

"Oh." Willow ran in too.

"Where is she!" She had a baseball bat in hand.

"Hey Willow, it's cool." Xander said.

"It is?"

"Yeah, I handled it." Buffy and Giles stared while Clark cleared his throat. "Okay maybe not. Hey what happened to CK, that's more important!" Indeed they saw he was still littered with cuts, still not healing.

"Hmm, interesting." Giles noticed. Clark and Buffy stared at him oddly. "I mean, no, it's terrible. Just terrible, but it's interesting to see the effect of magic on you Clark. Normally, you are invulnerable to all types of attacks, but you seem to have a special vulnerability to mystical attacks."

Clark thought back. "Hmm, that would explain how I burned my hands when I tried to put out the fire on Amber. And why vampires could slightly hurt me. They're part demon." He groaned at finally feeling the adrenaline wearing off and the pain kicking in overtime. "Oh God, this is starting to kill me. I'll, uh, see you guys tomorrow. Woo hoo! World saved! We did it. Giles, we'll talk more tomorrow." Clark unsteadily limped out of the room. Everone stared at him as he walked down the hall. Xander turned the the others and said.

"So...anyone up for the Bronze?"

The next day Clark walked through the halls feelieng a lot better than the night before. He was completely healed, in fact, he felt even better than before. He talked to Giles, who was already thinking about ways to create immunities to magic, but Clark turned him down. It was strange, but he was kinda glad that he was vulnerable to magic. He had this belief that he was immortal and unkillable, with magic and meteor rocks able to hurt him, it was a way to humble him. To remind him that he wasn't unkillable, that he wasn't a god. He saw Buffy walking away from the trophy case with Amy and saw an opportunity. He's been working up the nerve to ask her out, he wasn't sure when he would have anoter chance if he didn't do it now.

"Hey Buffy." The two girls both turned around and smiled at Clark. "Hi Amy."

"What's up Clark?" Buffy noticed the look of urgency on his face.

"Can I, um, talk to you. Ya'know, in private." Buffy looked to Amy for an 'ok'.

"Gotcha, be my guest." She winked at Buffy and continued down the hall.

"What's up Clark?"

It was only then when everything in his mind started to screw with him. Her blonde hair seemed to glow brighter than the sun, looking as pure as gold. Her green eyes glowing emerald. "I-um, I realized yesterday that living on the Hellmouth is gonna be really crazy and dangerous and your near-death didn't exactly refute that claim. I don't want to go on knowing I didn't try, so...Buffy...will you go out with me. I-I mean do you wanna hang out or somethin. I'm cool with-" She cut him off with a wide smile. She didn't say anything, but the words died in his throat.

"Pick me up at 8. We can go to the Bronze." Clark smiled back and they both looked into each others eyes until the bell rang.

 **Sorry this came out a bit later than what usually entails for my schedule, my little brother and sister's birthday parties were this weekend so I had little time to write. I made this longer than the chapters before. This is how it's gonna be: single chapters for standard episodes, but special episodes might have more than one. Thanks for reading and I'll try to update as soon as possible.**


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